Cleansing The Temple, Clearing Our Hearts

What if the God who loves you is also the God who clears the clutter that keeps you from him? We walk from Cana’s first sign to the courts of the temple, where Jesus overturns tables and expectations alike. This isn’t about spectacle. It’s about zeal rooted in love—protective, purifying, and fiercely committed to making a way for ordinary people to meet with God.

We unpack the shift from a marketplace that once helped pilgrims to a machine that preyed on them, and why Jesus’ actions echo Psalm 69 and Isaiah 9. Then we dig into one of his most provocative claims: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it.” The crowd hears building talk; Jesus points to his body, his cross, and the resurrection as the definitive sign. If he didn’t rise, faith is wishful thinking. If he did, everything changes—worship, identity, and the very meaning of righteousness.

Along the way, we talk candidly about shallow belief and why Jesus didn’t “commit” himself to the crowds who were dazzled by signs. He knows what’s in us. Our best efforts can’t impress a holy God or repair the distance sin creates. But grace can. Through substitution and union with Christ—crucified with him, raised with him—we become living temples where God dwells and works. That’s why the cleansing of the temple is more than history; it’s a pattern for our hearts. He overturns what exploits and distracts, restores prayer to the center, and invites us to trust him enough to let him work through us.

Listen for a clear, scripture-rich journey through John’s Gospel that ties together zeal, signs, resurrection hope, and practical faith. If this sparks something in you, share the episode with a friend, subscribe for more teachings, and leave a review to help others find the message. What table is Jesus turning over in your heart today?

Come On Up is the radio ministry of The Mountain Cross in Waynesville North Carolina. To learn more about us please visit: TheMountainCross.com.

Chapters

• 26:00 Marker 01

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:05

Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, and we shall walk in his paths.

SPEAKER_00: 0:13

Welcome to Come On Up, the radio ministry of the Mountain Cross in Waynesville, North Carolina.

SPEAKER_02: 0:20

There were glimmers of faith and people trusted in the Lord, but man could not do anything to please God. Man could not do anything to work himself up into an area where he could glorify God with their lives, where he could be a helper to God. The only way that man could be a helper to God is when man trusted in the Lord and allowed the Lord through his grace to work in and through them. In the Old Testament and the New Testament.

SPEAKER_00: 0:50

Do you remember helping your dad around the house with projects when you were a kid? Do you recall his voice? Hand me a Phillips. No, that's a wrench. No, that's a flathead. I need the one that looks like a plus sign. Son, that's a drill bit. In today's message, Pastor Carl teaches that sometimes you can try to help, but there's nothing you can do to help your father out. Your efforts aren't adding to the situation. But he loves you so much that he's just glad to spend time with his child. And now, here's Pastor Carl.

SPEAKER_02: 1:28

If this is true, that this is the beginning of the signs, this is the first miracle that he did ever, that might explain why his brothers and sisters maybe did not understand who he was. His mom understood, but they didn't understand. And even as he goes through and starts doing more and more miracles and develops a following, uh you will find that his that his siblings don't understand him yet. But after he resurrects from the dead, then people like James and Jude become part of the church and become very influential as well. So this was the beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and it manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him. They believed in him as much as they could. They know this is this is someone special. I believe he's the Messiah, but what does that mean? I don't know. What is he calling us to do? I don't know. What's the future gonna hold? I don't know, but I know I want to follow him, I know I want to learn more of him. And after this, he went down to Capernaum, he, his mother, his brothers, and his disciples, and he didn't stay there many days. He wasn't there very long because the Passover was coming up, and so they needed to go down to Jerusalem for the Passover meal. Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and he found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves and the money changers doing business. Before this time, these folks had set up shop across the way on the Mount of Olives. That's where they were doing this, but they were doing it as a service because people would come from far and wide and they needed to get us a sacrifice that was acceptable and appropriate for their family. And so uh they had people there with money changers that would change their money, uh their currency into the temple currency that could be used. They would uh offer them, you know, you know, goats or even doves. Uh Jesus' parents used doves because they were poor as a sacrifice to dedicate their son to the Lord. And so this was set up as a service, but now it was brought into the temple complex, into the area of the of the Gentiles there, and they're kind of changing some of the things that they're doing. Um when they exchanged the money, they they would kind of cheat them out of the uh the value of the currency that they had. Uh they would be charging more for these these sacrifices that they had before. They would offer these other things for sale. They weren't there as a service to the people anymore. They were there to make money now, to take advantage of people. And this is what made Jesus upset. Because his house, the father's house, was made as a house of prayer, a place for people to come and to meet with the Lord. And now the people that were representing God, the people who were helping people come to God, were now taking advantage of their fellow brethren and causing it to become even more difficult for them to meet with the Lord. And so in verse 15, when he had made a whip of cords, and John is the only one who reflects that fact, that he drove them all out of the temple with the sheep and the oxen, and and poured out the changer's money and overturned the tables. And he said to those who sold doves, take these things away. Do not make my father's house a house of merchandise, a den of thieves. This is a place where man is to meet with God, and you were to help them in that effort, but you are making it more and more difficult. You've come in and shit set up shop where you've had it outside before, so this could be a set-aside place for people. And then his disciples remembered that it was written, zeal for your house has eaten me up. The disciples go back and they they remember a quote from the book of Psalms, Psalm 69 specifically, and this is a psalm of David, and David um lamenting the fact that when he's seeking after the Lord and he's doing the things for the Lord, people are coming against him. People don't want to hear what he has to say because he's gone to meddling. And maybe you can relate to that too, as you live your life more and more sold out for the Lord. And you're not not saying things and doing things to Lord it over people, not saying things and doing things to make yourself look better than others. You just have realized that I'm a life that's been changed, and and you need to know Jesus too. You need to be changed because he loves you and he wants the best for you. And then people start coming against you because, well, you've gone to meddling. Because the Lord is is challenging our lifestyle, the Lord is is challenging our philosophies, the Lord is challenging our kingdoms that we're building ourselves. And saying, you need to lay all that down and follow after me, because my kingdom is so much better than anything you can create for yourselves. And this is some of the things that that that the David said that relate a lot to what Jesus is saying here, because for your sake I have bore reproach, shame has covered my face. I have become a stranger to my brothers, and an alien to my mother's children, because zeal for your house has eaten me up, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me. When you follow after the Lord, when you lay down your life more and more, when you allow him to work in and through you more and more, you're gonna look more like Jesus and you're gonna get more flack because the world doesn't want to hear the gospel of Jesus. And yet the world needs to hear the gospel of Jesus because that is our only hope. And so are you willing to be wronged so that the gospel of Jesus would go forth? So that somebody somewhere might just accept what what that word is, that message, and come to faith in the Lord. And we do this because this is what happened to our Lord. Our Lord, the God man, who is filled with the Holy Spirit, who has the blessing and direction of the Father, who shines forth the glory of the Father to the world. He is reproached, he is rejected by his own brothers, but because of zeal, and that name for zeal, uh that that word comes from a similar word that we get jealousy from. And we sang about that. How the Lord is jealous for me, how he loves me. The Lord is jealous for me, not because he's afraid that I'm gonna go and follow some other God and he's gonna feel neglected, but he's jealous for me as a father is to his children. And what's the best for his children, wants the children to be safe, wants the children to grow in righteousness and truth. And here he's seeing his children, people that really do seek after him and want to be known by him and be changed by him. They're being restricted from coming and meeting with God because of these folks that just want to build their own coffers, build their own kingdoms, that have missed their call in life. And the disciples recognized this. I wonder if they also remembered another set of scriptures from the book of Isaiah. We usually look at this at Christmas time. Isaiah 9, listen to this. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called wonderful, counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end upon the throne of David and over his kingdom to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. And the last line: the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform it. The jealousy of God, because he loves us so much, he is going to make this happen. He is going to bring salvation, he is going to set up his rule and his reign, his government here on earth. He is going to set everything that was wrong and make it right again. Do we trust him? Do we believe him? It's not about us making it ready for him, it's not about us in our own strength trying to be good enough to set things up for the Lord. It's about the Lord is the one who can do it. I can't. And do we trust him with it? Do we believe him? Do we follow him? Do we allow him to use us in the work that he's doing? And this is some of what was happening there as he came into the temple and in he literally cleaned house. And in verse 18 it says, So the Jews answered and said to him, What sign do you show us since you're doing these things? Which is an interesting thing. You're doing these things, and he will begin doing more and more things, more and more works that point out the fact that he is the Messiah. And often the doubters demanded a sign. How often maybe, maybe you didn't pray this, but you knew somebody did. God, if you're really out there, then do this. Or make a big thing in the clouds say, I am God, I am here, and I am talking to you. Then I'll believe. But Jesus doesn't play that game, does he? Does he? In his grace and his mercy, he's shown forth, he's revealed himself, he's given you plenty of signs, and he will be giving you even more signs. But to those that really don't want to believe, they're blinded to those signs anyway. They make up their own signs to justify their own disbelief, and they miss it all. But Jesus would give them a sign. He answered and said to them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I'll raise it up. Now, if they were seeking after him, if they understood the big picture, maybe they would understand what he was saying. But oftentimes he spoke in parables because people did not want to really know the truth. And so he would give them an excuse not to believe. You're just talking riddles. But if we really see what he's saying, he's saying something deep. Destroy the temple. They they they marveled at this temple. This was the place that Herod came back and rebuilt to this glory, and it wasn't even done, being rebuilt. It would be another, you know, a few decades before it would done. I think it was 64 A.D. it was finished, and then in 70 A.D. it was destroyed. It took a long, long time to build this magnificent temple. But of course, Jesus wasn't referring to the temple. Well, and the Jews said to him, It's taken 46 years to this point to build this temple. And you're gonna raise it up in three days, you're gonna destroy it in three days? But he was speaking of the temple of his body. Therefore, when he had risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this to them, and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had said. Jesus had given them a lot of hints along the way. The Lord spent three years with his disciples, let alone talking to Pharisees and Sadducees and religious leaders and such. And they really didn't get it till after the resurrection, till the job was completed, and then the power was given by the Holy Spirit for their eyes to be opened and to receive the scripture, to be changed by the word. Now, as I said last week, um John tends to not be too concerned with the chronological order, but he puts these ideas together. And I believe he combined these two instances because at the beginning of his ministry he went into the temple, and at the end of the ministry, Jesus went into the temple as well. But John puts these two ideas together just to get this idea out that he was the temple that he was speaking of, and he would die and he would rise again in three days. And that would be your sign. And he told that to his disciples a few times. He told that to the religious leaders, they didn't understand it. In fact, they they they saw it as a threat, and they said, we got to make sure that he is not, his body remains in that tomb because if he if his body is is stolen or something, uh this is really gonna cause an uproar because they're gonna say, well, he really did rise from the dead. Instead of saying, well, that was a sign from God because he was risen from the dead. Our Lord lives today, and that's why we have hope. If the Lord was not risen from the dead, if he was still in his grave, what we're doing here is pointless. Paul talks about that, how foolish it would be. But the thing is, he really did die and he really did rise from the grave, and he really does sit at the right hand of the Father, he really did send his Holy Spirit. When God works in the lives of people, God, the real God, really is working. It's not something we made up. But we also have an enemy who comes along and and and and and uh counterfeits a lot of what the Lord does, and he brings all sorts of different uh philosophies, different teachings, different theologies that uh touch on some of the truth but twist it so that we don't get it, and so that we we get to this place where we think it's all in our minds. We're all just whatever you believe, and so we can all just get along because there isn't anything really, it's just all about what you believe. But it's not about just what I believe. I believe in the truth, and if it isn't truth, I'm wasting my time. And even here, he's beginning to plant these seeds of the truth in the disciples and into anybody who was willing to listen. Verse 23. Now, when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover during the feast, many believed in his name, and they saw the signs which he did. The Pharisees and the Sadducees that were asking for a sign, they didn't get the signs they were looking for. But if you were open and if you were a student of God's word, especially too, these prophecies about the coming Messiah that Jesus was fulfilling, you would begin to see that. And you would say, Wow, look at that. He must be from God. And again, they believed, but this this shallow beginning steps of believing, let's call it that way. Uh they they knew there was something different about this man. They wanted to learn more about Jesus, they wanted to be changed by him, but they didn't understand the big picture. And many of them wouldn't understand until after the resurrection. So many believed in his name that they saw the signs which he did, but Jesus did not commit himself to them. That word commit is the same word used for believed in the sentence before. They believed him, but he didn't believe in them. Now, this is an important fact that we're going to wrap up with. Jesus did not commit himself to them because he knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for he knew what was in man. In other words, he knows that we are lost, he knows that we are fallen, he knows that we are sinful, and he knows that in our hearts we just develop new ways to sin every day, and we deceive ourselves and we deceive others. We're influenced by the fall, and the enemy takes advantage of that as well and gets us off track. And so Jesus, they began to believe in him, but he did not trust himself to any man because he knew man would let him down. But isn't that the point? We let the Lord down. Even before we were born, we were we let the Lord down thanks to our parents, Adam and Eve. And sin entered the picture, and from then on, uh there were glimmers of faith, and people trusted in the Lord, but man could not do anything to please God. Man could not do anything to work himself up into an area where he could glorify God with their lives, where he could be. A helper to God. The only way that man could be a helper to God is when man trusted in the Lord and allowed the Lord through his grace to work in and through them. In the Old Testament and the New Testament. This is the love of God. This is the zeal of God. This is the jealousy of God. He desires for you to be right with God. And the only way to do that was for God to become one of us, to become a man, to identify with us, to represent us, to take our place on that cross, to take the wrath of God upon himself to die and to rise again on the third day. So that we in turn could identify with him. That he died in my place. So that's me on the cross. He took God's wrath upon himself. I have died with Christ. I've been crucified with Christ. And now because he is risen from the dead, and in believing in him, I have become one with him, and I've risen from the dead as well. I now live for Christ. It's no longer I who live, but it's Christ who lives in me. The only way we could do a favor for God, the only way that we could be used by God in a way that glorifies him is if we allow him to work in and through us. His gospel changes everything. Now, mankind can do a lot of good things, but it does not come close to the righteousness of God. Mankind can do a lot of things to serve each other, but it doesn't come close to the holiness of God. Mankind can do these things because we're made in the image of God. And we're given these abilities to do things, but they've all been tainted by sin. And even our best works are as filthy rags before the Lord. Except for the Lord that cleanses us and makes us white as snow. We begin to understand what Jesus is going through. It's the light. He is the light that came into the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend him. They believed him, they started trusting and following after him, but they still didn't understand him. They still couldn't do what he needed them to do. He would let they would let him down, we would let him down. But he knew that. And he understood that. And as we look at the suffering servant of Jesus, he came and he was rejected, he was spat upon, he was mocked, and yet he did all those things. He was crucified, and yet he did all those things because it was the only way. It was the only way to redeem mankind, his greatest conest creation, back to a place where you could have full fellowship with him. And that's the good news, and that's the gospel that we share. That Christ came and he died for sinners, according to the scriptures. That he died and was buried, and he rose again on the third day according to the scriptures. And bunches of people saw the resurrected Christ and testified to him. It is true. It changes everything. He has come, he has made us right with God by the blood, his own blood of the cross, and he's coming back. He is coming back. Are you ready?

SPEAKER_00: 24:07

That's Pastor Carl on Come On Up. You know, the Gospel of John was written by one of Jesus' original disciples. He's referred to as the disciple whom Jesus loved. What a sweet and intimate way to refer to the closeness and friendship that was had between John and Jesus. After all, so many of the events mentioned were witnessed firsthand by John. He was there for the transfiguration, and he was the only disciple of the twelve mentioned to be at the cross as Jesus died. He was also one of the first people to see that the grave was empty. John had an opportunity and a privilege to write about all the things that he saw and witnessed with his own eyes. He saw miracles. He was the recipient of Jesus' love and care, and he was eager for others to see and experience knowing Jesus too. That's why he wrote it all down in this wonderful book of John. Like the author, we hope that you'll take note of the ways that God has intersected your life and brought about amazing stories to tell. Write them down, share them with others, and don't be afraid to tell people about the greatest love of all so that they can also claim that they are disciples whom Jesus loves. An easy way to share Jesus with people is by letting them know about this radio program. The Mountain Cross is a group of believers in Jesus who seek to grow in faith by simply teaching through the Bible. We meet on Sundays beginning at 10 a.m. To learn more, go to themountaincross.com. That's all for today. Come on Up is sponsored by The Mountain Cross, a Calvary Chapel fellowship.