Text: John 2:13-22

One of the reasons that I enjoy singing is because it gives me an opportunity to honor God. I really enjoy proclaiming God’s marvelous deeds through song. Songs are a way that we give glory to Jesus. I want us to meditate about how we give honor to Jesus. The text today says that Jesus is the temple that was raised on the third day. Therefore, I ask you, How do we Honor the Temple?

Part 1: We ought to be sure of our focus

By the time of Jesus’ ministry, the worship life of the Jews had deteriorated to a pretty bad point. This does not mean that everyone had fallen into unbelief but there were many people who had lost focus and were no longer following the message of God’s Word. Some people were still waiting eagerly for the promised Messiah but there were many others who had turned their faith away from the message of a Savior. There were the Pharisees who were promoting salvation through their own good works. There were groups that put their trust in their heritage rather than in God.

They had a sense of entitlement because they could trace their heritage back to the patriarchs. They thought that since they were descended from Abraham, Moses, and King David that they were guaranteed their spot in heaven. They would even highlight the fact that they had the temple in Jerusalem. They emphasized their status as God’s chosen people based on their wonderful house of worship rather than looking to a Messiah who would forgive them for all of their sins. They didn’t focus on forgiveness because they didn’t see a need for it. They simply held on to their works, their heritage and their place of worship as the source of their eternal life.

When it came to their worship life, they were just going through the motions. Praising God becomes less important when you don’t see the need for forgiveness. Think about what Jesus encountered when he waked into the temple. He saw people dishonoring the temple. They had turned the temple into a money making device. They knew that people needed to offer sacrifices so they opened up a marketplace to sell the animals necessary for those sacrifices. The merchants who sold those animals didn’t care about helping people seek the Savior. They were there to make money. Perhaps some people were turned away from their faith by the greedy actions of those sellers.

Part of the reason that they behaved this way was because they had lost the true meaning of the temple. The temple was supposed to point the people to the coming Messiah. The sacrifices were meant to show people that their Savior would have to sacrifice his life for their sin. The incense burning was a reminder of our prayers rising up to God. The features of the temple were to remind the people of God’s presence and that he would come and live among them. Jesus was the fulfillment of the temple and the people didn’t see it. That is why they had trouble understanding him when he said that he would raise up the temple in three days. They didn’t know that he was talking about himself.

The Jews serve as a warning for us. The sins that they committed are dangers for us as well. There are times that we just go through the motions of our faith. We come to worship, we serve in various ways but we do so for the wrong reasons. We do it not because we are joyfully living for our God. Rather we do it because we feel that it is our obligation. Or we do it in order to make our family members happy. There might even be times that we are tempted to focus too much on budgets and money. Even that can take us away from what is truly important. We might not have a marketplace like they had back then but money can certainly distract us from Gospel Ministry.

We might even point to our heritage as the reason that we are saved. We might not come out and say it but we become comfortable because our family has been members for so many generations. “Therefore,” we think, “this is our church and nothing is ever going to change that. How can the elders tell me that I need to come to church more? Don’t they know who my grandfather was?” We mistakenly believe that our name on the membership role is somehow equivalent to a ticket to heaven. What a shame it is when people only show up at church for special occasions. That is not a healthy faith.

We do sin by dishonoring the Temple. What I mean is that we dishonor the fulfillment of the temple, our Lord Jesus. Sometimes we have that attitude which says that we have faith in Jesus and that is all that we need. We use this as an excuse to live however we want. We live just like the sinful world around us at times and we get offended that a fellow Christian would rebuke us for our sin. Don’t they know that we have faith in Jesus? Who are they to judge me? Jesus loves me no matter what. Ah, there’s the problem. Jesus’ love doesn’t give us permission to sin. The Bible tells us that if we go on sinning after knowing the truth, then we trample Jesus underfoot and reject his forgiveness.

We also dishonor Jesus by avoiding the tough conversations. When we learn about sin, we avoid talking to the sinner about the sin. When we know that a family member is breaking the sixth commandment by living with her boyfriend, we come up with all kinds of reasons for why we should say nothing. “She’ll get mad at me and leave the church. She’ll think that I am judgmental and unloving.” What we fail to recognize is that the sin is already driving a wedge between her and God. We conveniently forget that God’s Word tells us that the loving thing to do is to rebuke and discipline the sin. The loving thing is to urge repentance and turning away from sin. Rather than standing up for Jesus and his Word, it is much easier to remain quiet.

Part 2: We are now temples of the Spirit

We need our time with Jesus so that we continue to grow in our faith. God helps us to mature in our faith so that we do honor Jesus. Think about Jesus’ disciples. It took them a while before they were ready to share Jesus with others. Even they did not fully understand what Jesus was going to do as their Savior. Just like many other Jews, they had trouble with Jesus statement that he would rebuild the temple in three days. Think about verse 22, “After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.”

It wasn’t until after the resurrection that the disciples understood this announcement of Jesus. Then they understood that the temple he had been referring to was his body. Then the disciples were built up in their faith. And that is when they were able to take the beautiful gospel message and proclaim it to others. It is interesting to take a look at how the disciples grow in their faith. They transform into spiritually mature believers. At first they thought that Jesus was going to establish an earthly kingdom. After the resurrection they understood that he was their Savior who rescued them from sin, death, and the devil. They dedicated their lives to proclaiming that gospel to others.

Thinking about Jesus as the fulfillment of the Old Testament temple reminds me that Scripture also refers to us as temples of the Holy Spirit. It says in 1 Corinthians 6:19+20, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” As followers of Jesus, our life is not our own. He paid the ultimate price for us. He gave his life on the cross to save us from our sins. Now the Holy Spirit is living in us. We serve Jesus as a result of the faith in us.

Romans chapter 8 reminds us that the Spirit living in us leads us to turn away from the sin that tries to entangle us. It says, “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you.” We are not controlled by sin, we are controlled by the Spirit and live for God.

How then do we live for God? How do we live by the Spirit? We remember that our faith is not just going through the motions. We come to worship because we want to be here. We appreciate what our God has done for us. We know that we deserve punishment for our sins but we have received forgiveness and eternal life through Christ. We take comfort not in our family heritage or in our membership status. We take comfort in the love of Christ.

We also take our sin seriously. We listen when we are rebuked by a fellow Christian. We repent of the sins we have committed. We turn away from those sins and we praise God for his mercy. We speak up and rebuke fellow Christians who need to hear that correction. We give them the discipline of the law so that they can feel the comfort of the gospel. When we are strengthened by the Spirit, we do not shy away from the message that needs to be proclaimed. We speak the truth in love.

Conclusion

When we think about all the ways we have not honored Jesus, we can despair. But then Jesus revives us through the gospel. The good news is the message that he, the temple, would be raised up after having been destroyed. Through the Spirit living in us, we proclaim this message to others. We can proclaim that he died for all! We honor Jesus in many ways. Let’s honor Jesus by sharing his wonderful gospel.