An Unmistakable Sign

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I’m going to ask you this morning to turn with me in your Bibles to John chapter 2. John chapter 2 this morning. You know, I’ve seen a picture that’s gone around.

Well, I’ve seen a few different pictures that have gone around on Facebook and other social media platforms over the last couple weeks, especially as we were heading into last Sunday with all the changes that were brought about by digital church sort of exploding. On one of the pastors groups I’m in on Facebook, somebody posted something that said, well, brothers, we’re all televangelists now. I kind of chuckled at that.

And I saw something later that said, you know, a few weeks ago, all the local churches, All the little local churches were against televangelists, and now they are televangelists. And I thought those things were funny, because in a sense, we are, I guess. We’ve all started, a lot of us have started broadcasting.

A lot of us have gone digital, and I’m even giving information about how you can give on each of our posts, because people are asking. And so I can see where some people look at that and say, oh, they’re becoming televangelists. But there’s a televangelist has a pretty negative connotation to a lot of us.

And I certainly don’t consider myself a televangelist. When I hear the word televangelist, I think about these guys who are selling prayer cloths. They’ve got a piece of cloth that somebody has prayed over, and for your donation of however much, over a certain amount, they’ll send you this prayer cloth, and it’s supposed to be the key to God answering your prayers. There’s a place that Charla and I went on our honeymoon when we were in and around Santa Fe, New Mexico.

We stopped at this little town outside Santa Fe, between Santa Fe and Taos, called Chimayo. Some of you may think, well, this is the kind of place you went on your honeymoon. Aren’t you exciting people?

But it was an interesting place to stop. There’s an old shrine there at this town called Chimayo, where they sell holy dirt, or on a donation basis. And I guess it’s like holy water.

You have it, and they believe it can heal illnesses. And so you send in your donation, they’ll send you a package of holy dirt. And they’ve been doing this for hundreds of years, so they keep having to refill the hole in this church where they get the holy dirt from, and then they pray over it.

And anyway, they’re not specifically televangelists, but that’s the kind of thing the televangelists do. You know, send us your money, or send God your money, but make it out the check to us, and God will be happy with you. You’ll get a blessing, that sort of thing.

And so I don’t really see what we’re doing as televangelism in that sense. We’re trying to do the best we can to cope with this and make the services available to everybody. But we certainly don’t want to take that step into televangelism where we begin to take advantage of the worshipers.

And I think that’s the big difference between broadcasting and televangelism, at least in my mind, is that line there is whether you’re doing it for what you believe is the benefit of the worshipers or whether you’re using the worshipers to your own benefit. And, you know, some of that went on in Jesus’ day. Some of that went on in Jesus’ day as well, where people were using worshipers for their own benefit.

And when Jesus saw this, Jesus became outraged. You know, a lot of people think that Jesus was just this almost passive figure, you know, that he just, because of peace and love, he just sat back and let everybody do what they wanted to. But Jesus got a little hot under the collar at times, and for the right reasons.

I remember somebody saying one time that when somebody asks you, what would Jesus do, remind them that chasing people with a whip is within the realm of possibility. And this is one of those instances. He did this actually on multiple occasions.

But if you’re with me in John chapter 2, I want to continue this study on Jesus’ resurrection. And it picks up in one of these stories where people were taking advantage of worshipers, and Jesus saw it and got upset. So we’re going to be in John chapter 2, starting in verse 13, where Jesus confronts the televangelists of his day.

They weren’t on broadcast media, but they were certainly taking advantage of the worshipers. Starting in verse 13, it says, The Jewish Passover was near, and so Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple, he found people selling oxen, sheep, and doves, and he also found the money changers sitting there.

After making a whip out of cords, he drove everyone out of the temple with their sheep and oxen. He also poured out the money changers’ coins and overturned the tables. He told those who were selling doves, Get these things out of here!

Stop turning my father’s house into a marketplace. And verse 17, and his disciples remembered that it is written, Zeal for your house will consume me. So the Jews replied to him, What sign will you show us for doing these things?

Jesus answered, Destroy this temple, and I will raise it up in three days. Therefore the Jews said, This temple took 46 years to build, and you will raise it up in three days? but he was speaking about the temple of his body.

So when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and the statement Jesus had made. So this story is one that I’ve studied for a number of years at different times, trying to understand just why Jesus was so upset. Because when you think about it, it doesn’t seem unreasonable that people would be selling oxen, that people would be selling sheep, that they’d be selling doves, that they’d be selling things that were needed for sacrifice, because some of the people were traveling long distance, and honestly, it’d be a lot more convenient to be able to buy your sheep or your ox there than to have to transport it from some backwater on the other side of Israel.

Just get there and buy it. It’s like I tell my wife all the time, when trying to pack for six people, if we’re going to go on a trip, you know, don’t worry about packing everything we might possibly need. Take the things you think we’ll need, and then there are some things, I’m sure there’s a Walmart nearby.

It’s Oklahoma, there’s always a Walmart nearby. There’s probably a Walmart nearby, it’d be much more convenient if we just go buy this rather than, you know, bring two vehicles in order to transport everything. So I would think it’d be much more convenient to buy the stuff there, But I don’t think Jesus was really upset because of the simple fact that they were selling.

I think Jesus was upset. In my study of this, in my understanding of this, I believe Jesus was upset because of the way they were doing these things, and probably even more so the motivation behind doing things. It’s not a problem with them selling.

They were coercing people into buying things they didn’t need. As I’ve read about this, I’ve read some accounts that say people would come to the temple, And, you know, your animal that was for your sacrifice had to be free of blemish, free of defect, in some cases free of spots of any kind. And so they would, these people set up outside the temple, would sometimes convince people that what was in reality a perfectly acceptable sacrifice had some defect or blemish for some reason, and the people would have to buy another one.

sort of like going into a crooked mechanic and them saying, oh, no, that whole transmission’s got to go when in reality it didn’t need to. And so they’d say, oh, no, no, no, you can’t use that sheep. But fortunately, I have one on sale for you today.

So what’s it going to take to get you to this sheep today? So they were coercing people into buying things they didn’t need. They were charging exorbitant amounts for the things people did need.

You know, there’s been a lot of talk of price gouging right now. in some cases they were willing to sell you all the sheep or oxen you would need for your sacrifices, but they’ve got you over a barrel right there by the temple, sort of like a ballgame when you’ve already paid to get in and they think they can charge you $5 for a hot dog. Well, they’ve got you right where they want you.

And so some of these sales booths and these money changers, they were doing these things for just exorbitant amounts of profit, selling far above and beyond what they needed to. They were fleecing these people, basically. And then you’ve got the money changers who were changing money because you had to use certain.

. . My understanding is you couldn’t use your regular Roman currency in the temple.

You had to make your donations with Israelite currency. And so people would bring in their pocket money that they would use anywhere. They’d change it.

And these money changers were charging predatory rates to change people’s money. And what we get there is a sense that these people were not there, these salesmen and these money changers were not there with any kind of worshipful purpose at the temple. They were not even there seeing the temple as a place of worship.

They were there seeing the temple as a place where they could make money off the worshipers. And so when they were there to use worship for profit, Again, I don’t think it was a problem that they were selling these things that were going to make it possible for people to worship. I don’t think it was a problem that they were changing money.

I think what their motivation was and how they were doing these things from a historical standpoint seems to be the bigger issue. And maybe Jesus would have been happier if they’d gone outside the gates of the temple and done it right outside. But the issue was here that these people were using the temple and they were using the worshipers for profit.

And that was a problem in Jesus’ day. And I’ll tell you, it’s still a problem in our day. When it happens, it’s a problem.

And so Jesus called for people to stop this crooked business that was taking place in the temple. And when he called for them to do that, the Jews stepped up and they demanded to know. And it says the Jews, I think it’s talking about the religious leaders of the temple, because they might have been receiving a cut of this.

It might have been some of the money changers and the vendors themselves, but those who were in authority in the temple, they stepped up and they demanded to know by what authority he spoke. Again, I don’t think he was telling them that it’s a sin to sell sheep or it’s a sin to change money. I don’t think he was even telling them here that profit was evil, but he was telling them that there were more important reasons to be at the temple, and they were in there for the wrong reasons.

They were doing it wrong, And with the way they were doing things, they were detracting from the worship that was supposed to be taking place there. And he’s telling them about this. The disciples recognized this scenario.

As they’re watching this unfold, they remembered Psalm 69. 9, which is quoted in verse 17, that one of the things referring to the Messiah in the Old Testament said that he would be zealous for the Lord’s house and that he would be consumed by zeal for the Lord’s house. And so as they’re seeing Jesus get fired up about what’s taking place in the temple, they recognize that as a reflection of something the Old Testament had said about the Messiah.

And I think for them, the wheels are already turning. This is early in the book of John, but the wheels are already turning as they’re beginning to understand a little bit about who Jesus is. So Jesus steps up, says, this crookedness.

Stop taking advantage of the worshipers. Stop taking advantage of the worship going on in my father’s house as an excuse just for you to come and make money. And their response was basically like a petulant child.

Oh yeah, who died and made you our boss? They wanted a sign. In verse 18, when they’re asking, what sign will you show us for doing these things?

They’re asking, if you really think you have the authority to tell us to stop, then show us some sign of that authority. It really was who died and made you our boss. Well, he’s about to show them, he’s about to tell them who was going to die and rise again to make him their boss.

So they wanted a sign, and Jesus pointed them to the resurrection as the sign of his authority. Now, it hadn’t happened yet, but he’s telling them, wait, because you’re going to see this. Here’s, you want a sign?

Here’s your sign. Here’s the sign that’s coming. He pointed them not just to a sign, but he pointed them to what was going to be the ultimate sign when he said in verse 19, destroy this temple and I’ll raise it up in three days.

He said, you want a sign? Here’s your sign. Destroy this temple and I’ll raise it up in three days.

Now they misunderstood. They thought he was talking about rebuilding the temple, not just his temple, but the temple, the temple there in Jerusalem where they were standing. They thought he was talking about rebuilding that temple in three days and they were confused because taken more than 40 years to build.

And so they sort of react to him in this disbelief, almost in a mocking way. Wait a minute, it took 40 years to build it, and you think you alone, it took all these workmen 40 years to build it, and you think you alone are going to be able to rebuild it in three days. Now that would be quite a sign.

They didn’t understand his statement then, and they misremembered it later during the crucifixion, because Matthew 27 and Mark 15 tell us that one of the things they shouted to him during the crucifixion was this accusation that he had threatened to destroy their temple. No, no, no. You go back to this in John chapter 2 when it actually happened. He didn’t threaten to destroy their temple.

He didn’t threaten to do anything to their temple. He said, you destroy the temple. You people destroy the temple, and I will raise it up in three days.

He said they were going to be the ones who would destroy his temple. They got it backwards. They said he threatened to destroy their temple when Jesus said they would destroy his temple and he would rebuild it.

But verse 21 makes it clear that he was not talking about the physical temple where they went to worship. He was talking about the temple of his body. And that metaphor is used other places in the New Testament where the body is described as a temple.

Most notably where the Apostle Paul says that our bodies as Christians are the temple of the Holy Spirit. So when he says they’re going to destroy this temple, his temple, he’s talking about his death, and for him to raise it again in three days, he’s describing his resurrection from the dead. And think about it, if they wanted a sign that was going to prove his authority, the resurrection did it.

Now I’ve read where modern skeptics say, so what, even if he did rise from the dead, it doesn’t prove anything. I don’t know how you get there from here. You can say it doesn’t prove anything all you want, but as far as I’m concerned, it proves a lot.

For somebody to say, I’ll rise again from the dead, and then to raise themselves again from the dead, is a pretty good sign to me that that person has authority over life and death that only God has, because we don’t just rise again from the dead. If I get killed in a car wreck on my way home from doing this, I’m not going to be able to bring myself back from the dead. Because I’m not God.

That’s not something we see every day because people can’t do it. And so for him to not only rise from the dead, but to predict it, to say it was going to happen, he’s indicating that not only does he know the future like God, but he has this power over life and death that only God has. And so he says the resurrection is going to be the ultimate proof.

It’s going to be the ultimate evidence of my authority. And this is not the only time that he does that. There are at least two other occasions in the Gospels where somebody comes to him saying, oh yeah, well, if you have the authority to tell us that, we want a sign.

Prove it, basically, they’ll say. Prove it. Prove your authority.

Show us a sign. And on all three of these occasions, Jesus points them to the resurrection. On a couple of them, he says, you’re not getting any sign other than the sign of Jonah.

Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, So the Son of Man will be in the belly of the earth three days and three nights. And then just to follow that to its logical conclusion, just as the whale, this aquatic tomb he was going around in for three days, spit Jonah out on the dry land, so after three days the grave was going to spit Jesus out because just like the whale couldn’t hold Jonah when God said it’s time, the grave couldn’t hold Jesus when the Father said it’s time. So we have this instance in John chapter 2.

We have another place in Matthew 12 and Luke 11, same event, where they ask for a sign of his authority, and Jesus points to the resurrection. We’ve got another, a third instance in Matthew 16 and Mark 8, where they ask for a sign of his authority, and he points to the resurrection. And that’s because the resurrection demonstrated his authority in a way that no other sign could.

These people were looking for a sign, like, do a miracle. Show us something right now that’s going to prove that you have the authority. Show us something right now that’s going to tell us that you are who you say you are.

They were looking for him to do something that they could look at right now. But here’s the thing. People can do all sorts of magic tricks.

And I say tricks. They can do all sorts of magic tricks to show their skill at illusion. But Jesus came back from the dead to show himself as God.

He didn’t want them to think that he was good at that the hand is quicker than the eye stuff. He didn’t want them to think that he was good at fooling them. He didn’t want them to think he was good at performing on command.

He wanted them to understand that he’s God. And we can look at stories even in the Old Testament where Moses faced off against Pharaoh and his sorcerers, basically. There were several of the signs that God sent, several of the plagues that God sent, that these magicians were able to duplicate or at least fabricate.

They were able to make it look the same. They were able to make water look like blood. They were able to make sticks look like snakes.

They were able to do these illusions, and so God sent a miracle that they could not duplicate, which was the angel of death and passing over the firstborn when he saw the blood posted on the doorposts. Well, if Jesus had done anything else here, if he’d said, okay, let me heal a guy right here on command, or if he’d said, let me change water into wine right here on command, let me perform a trick for you, any of those things that he had done, the Pharisees would have looked at and doubted, because we see all throughout Jesus’ ministry that they doubted whenever he did a miracle. They tried to explain it away.

On at least one occasion, they even said he did these things by the power of the devil. So anything he did, they were going to try to explain away either as demonic power or as a parlor trick. So why go through all of that nonsense?

Why go through all that argument and debate with the Pharisees and the leaders of the temple when he can point them to the ultimate sign that proves he is who he says he is? And it is the ultimate sign because it’s beyond our natural human capabilities. And let me tell you about this.

if the resurrection of Jesus Christ does not convince us of his deity, I don’t know what will. I mean, you can look at all the arguments, you can look at all the signs, you can look at all the evidence, but I think if you can look at the resurrection and all the evidence there is for the resurrection, and there is tremendous amount. As far as any event from ancient history, we’ve got as much or more evidence for the resurrection and better arguments for the resurrection than almost any event in ancient history.

And if we can look at all of that and be convinced that the resurrection happened, if this morning you can be convinced that the resurrection happened and still not think that Jesus Christ is God in human flesh, I don’t know what sign would convince you. I don’t know what sign would have convinced them because they were determined not to believe. If the resurrection, where he overcame death and hell and the grave, If that sign isn’t enough to convince us, there’s not another sign that will.

And so if someone asks me today why they should believe in Jesus, why they should believe that Jesus is God, why they should believe that Jesus is their one and only Savior, why they should believe any of what Jesus says about who He is or what He did, if they were to ask me today why they should believe those things, what’s your top reason, what’s your top argument, The resurrection is absolutely what I’m going to talk to them about. The resurrection is what I want to talk about. Because the resurrection is the ultimate evidence that he’s God in human flesh.

If he was anything less than God, he could not have raised that temple again in three days, like he said. You can doubt the resurrection. You can question whether it really happened.

But if you believe it happened, I don’t understand the leap that says, but he’s still not God. The resurrection is the ultimate evidence that he’s God in human flesh. And if that’s the case, he has the power of God.

If that’s the case, he has the authority of God. And if that’s the case, then we need to respond to him as God today. And through all this, Jesus really was calling them to recognize him as God.

He wasn’t just telling them, hey, look to the resurrection just to satisfy your intellectual curiosity. He was pointing them to the resurrection as proof that he was God. And if Jesus is calling them to recognize him as God, then he’s still God today.

And this is a call, this pointing to the resurrection. By what authority do you say these things? By what authority do you teach this?

By what authority do you do this? And Jesus answers every time, look at the resurrection. Then he’s calling us, he’s calling us too, to recognize him as God.

He’s calling us to recognize him as God, complete with all the authority that that entails. He’s saying, I’m not just a human teacher. I’m not just a wise man.

I’m not just a good man. I’m God in human flesh. And we need to think about what that means for us.

Because if Jesus is God in human flesh, and if he proved it by rising again from the dead, then everything he taught, he taught with the authority of God, and it’s something we need to take seriously. He warned about sin and judgment. If he’s God and proved it through the resurrection, then that’s something we need to take seriously.

What he calls sin, we need to understand, is sin, whether society has moved on or not. When he warns of judgment, we need to be assured that the judgment of God will come one day, whether we think so or not. He preached righteousness and repentance.

He told us how to be right with God. He told us what God’s standards are. Again, whether society agrees with them or not, if Jesus is God and proved it through the resurrection, then we need to take seriously the things He said about what’s right and what we ought to do.

We ought to take seriously the calls that He made throughout the Gospels and elsewhere in His Word to repent. That word repentance, I want to be clear, means to change your mind and get on the same page with God. It doesn’t mean we become sinless.

It doesn’t mean we become perfect overnight. Right. What it means is we go from saying, God, I don’t care what you say.

I like doing this, to saying, God, this is sin and I hate it. Would you help me to stop? Would you help me to turn my back on this?

Repentance is a change of mind and it’s a change of attitude toward God. And if Jesus is God and proved it, then we need to take seriously what he said about repentance and we need to repent. And Jesus offered forgiveness and salvation.

And if He’s God, and if He proved it with the resurrection, if He proved with the resurrection that He speaks with the authority of God as God the Son in human flesh, then we need to take seriously what He said about forgiveness and salvation. We need to take seriously that He is the one and only way to salvation. He’s the one and only way to forgiveness.

He’s the one and only way to have peace with the Father. And this morning we need to understand that Jesus taught that we’re all sinners. He taught that we’re all separated from God by our sin.

Jesus told the Pharisee, or told the people, that unless their righteousness exceeded that of the Pharisees, they would not enter into the kingdom. And the Pharisees were the most moral religious people of his day. They were the ones who worked the hardest to act religious.

And Jesus said, you got to do even better than that. And the point is, we’re all sinners and none of us can do better. And so on our own, Jesus says none of us will enter in.

If he’s God and proved it through the resurrection, you’ve got to take that seriously. Jesus taught that we’ve all sinned and we’re all separated from God. Jesus taught that there’s nothing we can do on our own to enter into heaven.

There’s nothing we can do on our own to have a relationship with God. The only way that you and I can be forgiven, the only way that we can have that relationship according to Jesus, is to trust in the offer of salvation that God makes freely because Jesus died on the cross to pay for it. He didn’t just rise.

He didn’t just go through the crucifixion and resurrection to prove that He’s God. He died on the cross to pay for our sins. You and I could never do enough good to pay for our sins in full.

We could never do enough good. We could never suffer enough to earn our way back into God’s good graces. So Jesus came and took responsibility for our sins in full.

took responsibility on himself, and he was nailed to the cross where he shed his blood and he died to pay for every bit of sin we’ve ever committed, every time we’ve disobeyed God, in word, in action, in attitude, in thought, every act of disobedience Jesus paid for on the cross. He’s the only way that we could be forgiven, and he rose again from the dead to prove it. And this morning, if you realize that you’ve sinned against God, if you realize that you can’t do enough good to earn your way to heaven.

If you realize that you’re separated from God and Jesus is your only hope of having a relationship with Him, I’d invite you to trust Him as your Savior. Talk with God, acknowledge your sin, acknowledge your faith in Jesus Christ, and ask God’s forgiveness.