Participants: Deyvy Rodriguez & Jon Paulien
Series Code: JBOTB
Program Code: JBOTB00007B
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00:01 And welcome back again.
00:02 We're studying the Gospel of John. 00:04 Particularly we're studying the cleansing of the temple 00:07 in the last part of Chapter 2. 00:09 And we are with Dr. Jon Paulien. 00:12 And this is very exciting 00:13 because he has a very detailed in-depth study on this gospel. 00:18 And, Dr. Paulien, we left off on how this story is leading to-- 00:25 has a spiritual emphasis towards the cross. 00:29 It really connects with the wedding of Cana story. 00:32 So you can read the chapter as a whole. 00:35 And there's all sorts of hints 00:37 that John drops that all end up at the cross. 00:39 You have the third day in Chapter 2 verse 1. 00:42 You have the woman, you know, 00:45 marry who appears again at the cross. 00:47 You have the idea, my time hasn't come, 00:50 the disciples saw His glory. 00:53 You have the water turned into wine 00:55 which recalls the blood of Jesus. 00:58 Here in the temple story, 01:00 it says Jesus replaces the temple with His body. 01:03 He replaces the sacrificial animals with His body 01:06 which will be sacrificed on the cross, 01:08 so for the person who knows the Gospel of John 2 01:13 is full of foretastes of the cross 01:16 and it illustrates the point 01:18 I was making each of the stories in the Gospel of John 01:21 is like a parable that has deeper spiritual meaning. 01:25 And the cross for John is the place 01:29 where God is truly revealed. 01:31 People have a lot of different views of God, 01:34 but the truest view of God is the one we see in Jesus 01:38 in the Gospel of John. 01:39 He is revealing God's character 01:41 in His willingness to die for us, 01:45 in His willingness to be gracious and kind and patient 01:50 with difficult people, people who just never get it, 01:52 they don't understand, they oppose everything, 01:55 and yet He is patient with them 01:57 and He shows them what God is like. 02:01 Now speaking of God's character here in the story particularly, 02:04 we read that Jesus was not very happy or pleased 02:08 with these actions and it says that, 02:11 you know, that He had a whip, 02:15 doesn't say that He whipped him. Yeah. 02:16 But we often have this picture of Jesus, 02:20 you know, just whipping everybody 02:22 and just this feature of just angry at the people, 02:27 is that an accurate depiction of the character of Jesus? 02:31 I think it's really important to keep in mind 02:34 that God meets people where they are. 02:36 And children need a strong parent. 02:41 School teachers know that if you start the year 02:44 being sweet and nice, the kids may run all over you. 02:48 So parent or a teacher starts out sometime stern 02:53 and so on to set the boundaries, set the structure, 02:56 but when people are used to that structure, 02:59 when kids grow up and feel comfortable in that structure, 03:01 the parents then can back off 03:04 and if you have 30-year-old child 03:06 and you're still yelling at them and telling them what to do, 03:10 that's probably not appropriate anymore. 03:13 And I think God wants to grow people. 03:16 He doesn't want to be threatening. 03:18 He doesn't want to be judgmental and so on. 03:21 He wants to love us and receive love in return, 03:24 that's the ultimate goal. 03:26 God is love from beginning to end of the great controversy, 03:30 you know, throughout history, that's what it's all about. 03:33 And yet God meets people 03:35 where they need Him at different times. 03:37 And here, this temple needed cleansing. 03:42 It doesn't tell us Jesus hit anybody, 03:44 but apparently just a look in his face was enough to feel, 03:46 so that I'm getting out of here. 03:50 I've got to run. 03:52 And because the temple is cleansed, 03:54 now the children could come to Him 03:55 and it changed the whole atmosphere. 04:00 So going back to verse 19 04:03 where Jesus answered them and He says, 04:04 "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up." 04:08 And then verse 21, it's the narrator that he says, 04:12 "But he was speaking of the temple of His body." 04:15 So what is he talking about, his death and his resurrection? 04:19 Oh, yeah. That's a good point. 04:21 I'm glad you pointed that out because I was just saying 04:24 that there are so many foreshadows of the cross. 04:27 There is another one. 04:28 Destroy this temple, my body 04:31 and I will raise it up in three days. 04:32 That's a clear reference to the death 04:34 and resurrection of Jesus. 04:36 So John is pretty plainly hinting to us. 04:39 Hey, don't take this as a surface story, 04:42 go a little bit deeper and see that it's all about the cross, 04:46 see that there is a deeper significance to it. 04:49 So obviously Jesus was not there, 04:51 you know, pointing to the building saying, 04:54 you know, destroy this temple, 04:55 but rather He was referring to His--Himself. 04:58 It's the whole issue of misunderstanding. 05:00 We handle in the couple of programs ago 05:02 where the people in the story take Jesus literally 05:06 and don't catch the deeper spiritual meaning 05:08 that John is pointing them. 05:10 And the people-- and the people here, 05:12 the Jews just did not see that. Right. 05:16 They just--again their focus was on the building, 05:21 the material structure and Jesus was saying, 05:25 "You know, it's really about, 05:27 you know, again Me and the miracle is that 05:34 on the first day or on the third day." 05:38 You got it? Yeah. 05:39 "The body would be resurrected." 05:40 Well, it goes back to the old story 05:42 that the physical presence of Jesus 05:45 didn't have the impact 05:46 that the Holy Spirit did later on 05:48 in changing people's minds and hearts. 05:50 The people who are actually there often didn't get it. 05:52 And even the disciples didn't get it. 05:54 So we shouldn't feel disadvantaged 05:56 that we don't have the physical presence of Jesus 05:59 'cause the Holy Spirit can give us 06:00 an even deeper conviction than they had. 06:04 Let's go on to the last part of this chapter 06:06 'cause I think it's-- it's three verses 06:08 that are easily overlooked, 06:09 they're tremendously interesting. 06:11 Verse 23. 06:13 "Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover 06:16 during the Feast, many believed in his name 06:18 when they saw the signs which he did. 06:20 But Jesus did not commit Himself to them 06:23 because he knew all men, 06:25 and had no need that anyone should testify of man, 06:28 for He knew what was in man." 06:31 Now here's an interesting piece here. 06:33 This is what I call a dual-directional passage. 06:35 There's a lot of them in John. 06:37 The wedding of Cana is one of those too, 06:40 because we've already seen that it builds on Chapter 1 06:43 that series of days that ends in the wedding, 06:46 but it also sets the table for the temple cleansing 06:49 which are all cross related. 06:51 So the wedding of Cana kind of links two different things. 06:55 Here, this passage, verses 23-25 is the link 06:59 between the temple cleansing and the Nicodemus story 07:03 which we'll talk about in the next program in Chapter 3. 07:06 And here it says, 07:07 "A lot of people saw Jesus doing miraculous things in Jerusalem 07:12 and they believed in Him." 07:14 But here's a little piece that you don't get in translation. 07:18 It says in the Greek. 07:19 "Since they believed in His name, 07:22 but Jesus did not believe in them." 07:24 He uses the same word for belief. 07:27 The English translation usually changes it. 07:31 It's the idea, these people believed in Jesus, 07:34 but it was inadequate faith. 07:36 It wasn't a full rich deep faith. 07:39 They believed because of miracles. 07:41 They believed for that outward stuff 07:43 what we were just talking about. 07:44 You know, that they saw what Jesus did in the temple 07:47 and instead of seeing the spiritual meaning of it, 07:49 they just said, "Oh, you know, 07:51 he is gonna destroy this building 07:52 and build it in three days." 07:53 Now how did Jesus not believe in them 07:55 'cause I've not heard of that translation? 07:58 Well, the translation I have here 08:00 is He did not entrust himself to them. 08:03 You see, in the Greek, it's a play on words. 08:06 They believed in Him, but He doesn't believe in them, 08:08 kind of it's the surface meaning, 08:10 and what is He did not trust their faith. 08:13 He did not trust that their belief in Him. 08:15 It was only based in miracles. 08:17 They didn't know who He really was. 08:19 They didn't know that those miracles 08:21 would lead to the cross. 08:23 The cleansing of the temple would lead to the cross. 08:26 They didn't want to go to the cross. 08:28 They didn't want to take up their cross, you see. 08:30 So that they were believing in was a political Messiah 08:34 who would cleanse temples and defeat Roman armies 08:37 and bring them lots of money, you know, and fame and power. 08:42 Yeah, money, fame, power, relationships, 08:45 that's what people are all about, 08:47 that's not what Jesus came to bring. 08:49 He came to bring something deeper. 08:51 It's a picture of God and who He is, 08:55 and of a relationship with God that could change their lives. 08:59 So in John, there's three types of faith. 09:03 There's a faith that is inadequate. 09:08 And Nicodemus represents that kind of faith. 09:10 There's a partial faith, a good faith that's kind of immature, 09:16 that's what the disciples had after the wedding of Cana. 09:18 They say this guy is really special, 09:20 but they still don't know the cross. 09:22 Then there's full faith that understands 09:25 the whole picture of Jesus. 09:26 It's mature, it's lasting, it's unshakeable. 09:30 That's the faith of the Samaritan woman 09:33 in the end comes to demonstrate and many others in the gospel. 09:36 Mary, for example. Mary and Martha. 09:39 Yeah, but Jesus says, what the Bible says 09:42 that Jesus knew what was in men 09:43 and probably why He didn't trust them. 09:46 So does Jesus know what is in me, 09:48 what is in my heart I spoke? 09:50 Yes, that's right. 09:52 For the rabbis, here is something I wrote down here. 09:56 For the rabbis, there were seven things 09:58 that no human being could know. 10:00 The day of their death, the day of consolation, 10:03 in other words when God would bring about the end. 10:07 The depths of judgment, one's reward, 10:10 the time when the kingdom would be restored, 10:12 the time when the Romans would be destroyed 10:15 and what is within another. 10:18 The rabbi says, "It's impossible for a human being to know 10:21 what's inside another human being." 10:24 Yet Jesus knows that. 10:26 He has already shown that 10:28 with Nathaniel in the previous chapter. 10:30 He knew where Nathaniel was 10:32 and what he was thinking before Jesus ever met him. 10:36 He knew what was in them. 10:38 He didn't entrust himself to these people 10:40 'cause he knew their faiths were shallow, 10:42 it was just a sham, it was just something 10:45 they were excited about these miracles 10:47 and so they were gonna believe. 10:49 And perhaps that's a good place to draw a lesson, 10:53 as we come to the close of this chapter. 10:56 Jesus knows what's inside of us. 10:59 Now that maybe scary to someone. 11:01 Let me show you a different side of that. 11:03 If Jesus knows what's inside of you 11:07 then nothing you could tell Him would be a surprise. 11:12 And you see, confession of sin 11:15 is simply telling the truth about yourself. 11:20 It's simply saying, "Yep, I messed up. 11:23 Yeah, I've been going my own way." 11:26 It's telling what is actually true. 11:28 Now I've discovered 11:30 and people have sometimes confessed 11:32 that it's possible to even lie to God in prayer. 11:35 You know, you come to church and you're all upset, 11:38 the family's been a mess, you know, and so on, 11:40 and then suddenly you get to church, 11:42 "Oh, it's time for the opening prayer." 11:43 You have the opening prayer. 11:44 You run up there with a big smile on your face. 11:46 It's good to be here. 11:48 Let's thank the Lord for this wonderful day. 11:50 That's baloney, you know. 11:52 It's not in your heart whatsoever. 11:54 You see, so we can lie to God even in prayer 11:57 and it tells us, if Jesus knows us 12:00 it's safe to talk to Him about what's inside, 12:04 it safe to confess our sins. 12:06 He is not gonna turn on us for knowing the truth, 12:09 He already knows the truth. 12:12 So that's in my advantage. Yes. 12:15 Quickly, if that's the case, 12:17 why would I have to confess to God if He already knows? 12:19 Oh, because I need to, I need to come clean. 12:23 It's living a false life that is the thing 12:26 that keeps us away from God. 12:27 And when we confess our sins, when we open ourselves up, 12:30 we allow Him to cleanse us. 12:32 It's giving Him permission to enter our lives 12:35 and be part of it. 12:36 If you're holding back information from another person, 12:39 that's not a trusting relationship, is it? 12:41 So intimacy requires, we'd be totally honest with each other. 12:45 And that's what Jesus is inviting here. 12:48 He knows all about us. 12:49 He is inviting us to know all about Him 12:51 and to reveal ourselves to Him, 12:52 so we can have depth of relationship. 12:55 And that invitation from God is coming, 12:58 let us reason together and let's talk about this 13:01 and I will forgive your sins. 13:03 And, friends, I pray that you too 13:05 can come to Jesus as you are. 13:07 He knows who you are 13:09 and He's just more than willing to give you 13:11 that what you need. 13:13 May God bless you. |
Revised 2014-12-17