"He Made a Whip"

1) {Tell the story}

[Conduct the worship with 2 acoustic guitars and transparency projector]

a) Why the rough edges in worship today? Vandalism before the service {Open illustration}
Many of you may wondered, “Why are we worshipping today with just a pair of acoustic guitars and the old transparency overhead projector?” Right before the service today, a member of our group came in early and started messing up the equipment room, disconnecting all the cables and cords back there; while the whole time mumbling about how “God is not pleasing with our worship”. Luckily, some of us was able to subdue him right away, before he could do any real damage to our expensive equipment room. However, we could not get everything connected in time and the PowerPoint slide projector system is still down, so I am going to deliver the message today from my script the old fashion way. We are sorry for your inconvenience during worship as well as this time of study the Word.

b) How would you react to it? How would you react if Jesus did this? {Bridge to text}
In a way, we were lucky that this incident didn’t happened during Christmas or Easter Outreach program. Imagine what would it be like if we’ve prepared for the whole year, then someone would bust in and mess up the worship in a similar way? I couldn’t even contained myself earlier, “What the heck?” I shouted. And if it wasn’t for some other people hold me back, I would have done serious damage to the face of that guy who messed up our worship equipment already. . .

[silence]

By now, you should realized what I was reading was a fictional, first person perspective of what had happened two thousand years ago, paraphrased into our modern 21st century setting at Midway City. (Our systems are fine, we just decided not to use it so you could experience the reaction for yourselve!) From the ancient text of John 2:12-25, this is how it read:

c) What did the text say? {Read Scripture}
NIV 12 After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother and brothers and his disciples. There they stayed for a few days. 13When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!” 17His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.” 18Then the Jews demanded of him, “What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?” 19Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” 20The Jews replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” 21But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 22After 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. 23Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing and believed in his name. 24But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men. 25He did not need man’s testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man. - John 2:13-25

d) What do we seek from God from this text? {Prayer}
Lord Jesus, help us to remember that You are still in Your temple today; clean out the distraction in our life; and teach us to be your worshiper today. Amen.

e) Where are we? {Recap and background}
We are continue in our study of the Gospel of John series. Two weeks ago, An told us about Jesus recruiting his first disciples. They come then they see. Last week, {many of you were at camp and missed out} Pastor Son told us that these brand new disciples got to see “Jesus First Miracle” of turning water into wine.

How would I feel so far?
If I was a disciple, I would have thought, “What a nice guy, Jesus! He cared for the newly-wed couple, He helped out his mom, He performed miracle”

If I was a disciple, I would start producing T-Shirts “Vote for Jesus”; or bumper sticker, “Jesus is the answer!” Or better yet, some commercial jingles, “Problem in your marriage? Jesus is the answer! Running out of juice in life? Jesus is the answer! No job too hard, no miracle too small, Jesus has enough love for everyone!”

What are the time and the place?
Verses 12 and 13 said that “after this, Jesus, his family and his disciples all went to Jerusalem for the Passover”. All male Jews at that time traveled to the Jerusalem Temple every year to observe the Passover, a holiday to remember how God establish the Jewish nation out of Egypt. Of all the Gospels, John is the one that keep careful track of times, he mentioned the annual Passover trips a few times; and from this record, we concluded that Jesus public ministry lasted about 3 years. And so, this is the first Passover mentioned.

Is this incident really happened at this time, beginning of Jesus’ ministry?
However when we compare John’s record to the other Gospels, one strange thing emerged: The other Gospels also mentioned about Jesus cleansed the Temple, but at the end of his ministry, in fact just the week before they cruxcify him; but here John recorded that Jesus was cleansing the temple as his first act of public ministry. {John said that at the time of this cleansing, the temple had been building for 46 years, given Josephus’s date for the start of the building under Herod the Great, this is about the year 27AD}

How could this be? People have been debated about this for centuries, but I think it’s two incidents.
Upon close examination of the similarities and differences of the events, I think that Jesus cleansed the temple two times, one at the beginning here, when he was relatively unknown and therefore the Temple priests didn’t care much of it. But after three years of ministry, Jesus increasingly became a major threat to the Jewish religious leaders, and therefore when He purged the Temple once more time, they conspired to get rid of Him.[i]




2) Removal of distractions in Worship {Make the point}
a)
What did Jesus find in the Temple Court?
But back to the text here, “14In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money.” That’s weird, what are those animals there for? And what about the money-changers? What’s all that all about?

Why those were there?
These Jews and proselytes had to offer up their sacrifices, and for many of these travelers, the only solution was to buy a sacrificial animal there in Jerusalem. These worshippers also would have to pay the half-shekel temple tax in the coinage of the temple, and thus foreign monies were unacceptable and had to be exchanged for the proper Tyrian coins. At one time the animal merchants set up their stalls across the Kidron Valley on the slopes of the Mount of Olives, but at this point they were in the temple courts, doubtless in the Court of the Gentiles (the outermost court).[ii]

Why they ended up in the Temple court?
No doubt, these are for “conveniences” of the worshipers. People can purchase their sacrificial animals right there at the temple, and they can also exchange their money. In modern day setting, this would be the equivalence of installing ATM in the fellowship hall, or accepting Credit Card for tithing. In fact, I love these conveniences. Many Christian organization like Campus Crusade for Christ or Compassion International will setup an automatic payment plan for donors; every month they would electronically deduct straight from the donors’ credit card or checking accounts. No more hassling, no more forgetting your pledge commitment; it certainly help them to plan their budget more efficiently too. I could not wait until the day our church get progressive enough to implement that system here. Seriously, I really mean it!

But didn’t Jesus against these worship conveniences here in this passage?
Some people believe that and as a result, they would not even use musical instruments in the church. According to that belief, we shouldn’t used guitar, slide projector, microphone, and for that matter, even the printed bible and hymn books. No! I don’t think not thing is wrong with worship conveniences at all. Everything you see in the church today was a form of worship conveniences one way or another. Even the pews you are sitting on. churches didn’t have pews for people to sit until the fourth century!

So why did you arranged so that we have no worship bands and no slide today?
If Jesus didn’t against it, so why did he get upset? Here is the point: Jesus wasn’t against worship conveniences; He was against the distraction from these conveniences. Let me repeat it one more time: Jesus wasn’t against worship conveniences; He was against the distraction because of these conveniences.

What do you mean “distraction because of conveniences”?
Can you imagine the temple court as a virtual stockyard, with all the noises of the animals and the bickering businessmen? Can you conceive of trying to squeeze in between cattle who are tied up in the courts? Imagine the smell from these animals and their “waste products”. Think of what it would be like to have to watch where you walked, lest you step in something undesirable?

But what is the outer court of the Temple is for? The outer courts of the temple are the only places where Gentiles could worship. They are not allowed to pass beyond a certain point into the Court of the Jewish Women, and the inner court of the Jewish men, let alone the priest’s region and the Holy of Holies. The outer court is a mission outpost of Judaism, where God can minister to non-Jewish people of the world. If the outer courts are filled with oxen and lambs and doves, there is no place for the Gentiles to pray and to worship God. Can you pray in the midst of all that?

Not only these conveniences distracted them from their mission, but it also lead them to corruption. According to the law, each worshipper was supposed to offer a flawless animal as sacrifice; but go ahead and try to bring your own animal to the temple and see! In all likelihood it would not be approved by the certifiers. Why? So that worshipers will have to buy “certified” cattle and sheep from the vendors there; who were “connected” or paid the High Priest for the privillidge! And then with the monopoly on the market, the vendors in cattle and sheep would be tempted to charge exorbitant prices for such animals. They would exploit the worshippers. Historians recorded that even those who sold pigeons as poorman’s sacrifice would charge something like $40 for a pair of doves worth $4.[iii]

Is this still happening today? You bet! The many conveniences we have in worship could turn into distractions too. Did you find it hard to worship when we have no bands? When we have a new song? Or when the speaker reading from his notes? That’s precisely the point! For convenience, we have a worship service in English, with our own musical style. And let’s say for some reason you cannot attend our service, could you worship God with the Vietnamese service instead?

But the bigger problem comes when our convenience lead us to corruption. If we are so used to worship with an excellent worship band, and for some reason the worship leader move on to another place, will we settle for a secular musician in her place? Just so that we can continue to have our music? What about the corruption of voting people into leadership because their status in life? What about the politicking, power struggling, and bickering in the name of ministry and service?

What would Jesus do? “15So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.” Oh, yes he got angry, and he whipped people, and he flared up, and he messed up the place!

One of An’s non-Christian friend was shocked when we studied this passage together, “Wait a minute! How could Jesus be angry? Aren’t you guys believe that He is God? Is God like this? Angry is bad!”

No, getting angry is not bad; getting mad is bad!

Often we get mad when we get angry, so we thought that both are the same. No, Jesus was angry but not mad. Mad is when you are losing your mind, losing control, and just acting out purely from passion. The anger we saw here is a righteous anger; the sort anger we feel when we see the poor endures oppression from the rich, when you witness evil being done to the innocence, when the most despicable thing happens in the holy place. Jesus was boiled with that kind of anger.

But was He mad, losing His mind? No. The text said that, “he made a whip out of cords.” It takes some time to gather the cords; it takes some time to intertwine them to make a whip. He didn’t just grab anything he could find and hit people with it. From the text, we can also see His control over the cleansing. No permanent damage took place; no property was destroyed. The cattles were driven out but still can be found; the coins were scattered but can still be picked up; and He didn’t open the cage and let loose of the doves. He was not mad, but angry, very, very angry; angry enough to whip and to hurt people.

Why was Jesus that angry? The text explained, “he said, “Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!”” For twenty years He had been visiting the temple. Every year things get worse. Every year things were stagnant, no improvement. So finally, enough was enough, the situation required discipline and He made a whip to correct them. He made it his first public act of ministry: the removal of distractions in worship. You must remove to restore!

Would Jesus be angry today?

He said, “How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!” Yes, there are many conveniences of worship when we can buy sermons tapes, musics, books and food and drink. Convenience is good; I am all for it. But beware of the danger of turning the church into a profit center. Are we commercializing the faith? If you come to Sunday worship every week just as a place of business; to wheel and to deal; to make connection; to get ahead: He is making a whip for you.

He could have said, “How dare you turn my Father’s house into an entertainment center!” Yes, it is much easier to worship with a band; to enjoy the video production; to illustrate the modern situation with some funny skits. Convenience is good; I am all for it. But beware of the danger of turning the church into an entertainment center. Are we merely seeking to entertain the public? If you come to Sunday worship every week just to enjoy the band’s style of music; just to be entertained; just to critic the “performance”: He is making a whip for you.

He could have said, “How dare you turn my Father’s house into a social club!” Yes, it is nice to have fellowship with other believers; to be in community; to have friends to travel together with you in this journey of faith. Convenience is good; I am all for it. But beware of the danger of turning the church into a social club. Are you here just because your friends are here? If you come to Sunday worship every week just to hang out with your friends; just for the fun and the fellowship: He is making a whip for you.

He could have said, “How dare you turn my Father’s house into a show case of talents!” Yes, it is important to have capable speakers and teachers, talented leaders and responsible staff. Convenience is good; I am all for it. But beware of the danger of turning the church into a talent showcase. Are you here just because you are performing some duties and work? If you come to Sunday worship every week just because you are leading; just because people needed your help: He is making a whip for you.

He could have said, “How dare you turn my Father’s house into a resource center!” Yes, it is great to receive motivational and inspirational messages; to get something applicable and relevant into our lives. Convenience is good; I am all for it. But beware of the danger of turning your worship into consumerism. Are you here just because you want to get something out of it? If you come to Sunday worship every week just to listen to a certain speaker you prefer; or to obtain some practical benefits for your life: He is making a whip for you.

Some of these points sounded rather harsh, so let me explain it a bit further.

Back then as a worshiper, if you go to the temple to worship, what would you do? You took your best oxen from your flock, or buy the best sheep or dove you can afford, and bring it to the Temple as an offering. It’s gonna cost you. And what do you get out of it? Nothing {but a share of the left over}. Nothing. That’s why they call it a worship sacrifice! That’s why the Psalm said that “[The] zeal for your house will consume me”. Nothing left from me.

Worship, in the absolute sense, is all about God and nothing about us. It was like a complete royal waste. Non-worshipers would never understand why people wasted all these money, time, resources and even their own lives for it. But for the worshipers, they were supposed to understand why are they doing all this for; that it’s all for God! And this is why Jesus was angry and harsh, especially when you take into account that they come and worship only once a year! Once a year, and they were distracted from the meaning of worship!

But for us today, we come to Sunday worship every week, and sometimes we forgot why we are here for. Just last week, most of you guys was at camp, and I was supposed to go looking for a camp site for Winter Conference. So I informed Pastor Son that I might not be here. We finished early, and I was tempted to take the week off. “Hey, I was not supposed to do anything that Sunday; and none of you guys were here any way!” That’s when I was reminded, “Are you here just to do something? Are you here just because of people is here?”

Now, don’t take me wrong. I am not saying that we should not take vacation; that we are not allow to visit some other churches on Sunday. What I am saying is that when our motive is wrong, then we are allowing the conviences, the niceties, the secondaries distracted us. And we are in the danger of being corrupted, and being whipped by Jesus.

One of the strategy of Satan is to distract us from focus on Jesus in worship. He cleverly doing that making us focus on anything else but Jesus. It could be Mary the mother of our Lord, it could be a picture of Jesus suffering on the cross for us, it could be the worship service itself, even the Bible, or personalities.

When I was growing up in Saigon, every Saturday night we have an evangelistic meeting. One time I asked one of the staff, “Hey, who is the speaker this week?” And the staff answered, “Why would you want to know? Are you bringing your friends to Christ or are you bringing your friends to the speaker?” That’s the danger of distraction from convenience. Ofcourse all I wanted to do is to check out a suitable speaker who can relate to my friends, but in the course of doing so, I forgot all about The One who was really doing the work. God, and not the speaker.

This is not a license for neglect either. I am not saying that you supposed to come and worship regardless of what kind of negligent the leaders will do. There are two parts here, the worship leaders and pastors and teachers was supposed to lead. But on your part as a worshipers you are supposed to worship. Both are called to faithfulness. Both will be accountable before God. The first cleansing, Jesus condemned the distraction and the corruption of “the market”. The second time, He condemned the leaders as “robbers”!

And through out history, we are so easily get distracted. This is not the first time the Temple was cleansed. In 640 BC, King Josiah cleansed the Temple from cultics defilment. Around 430 BC, Nehemiah drove the Ammonite out of the Temple. Then in 167 BC, the Maccabees brothers cleansed the Temple again from worship abomination. Here Jesus cleansed His Temple, and three years from now he will have to do it again.

What’s up with that? It seems like we got distracted again and again. After Christianity got started in the first century, we went along fine for a while, then we got distracted. Couple of centuries later we got distracted from the Word of God and splitted between the Eastern Orthodox and the Western Catholic churches. By the 16th centuries, we were so off course from God and worshiping Mary and following many unbiblical tradition, and so the Protestants started to go back to the Word of God. And today, we considered the main line traditional churches of the Episcopalians, the Lutherans, the Methodists so off courses and started the new waves of Pentecostals, Calvary Chapels, and the Vineyards.

Why are we keep straying off course? What’s the solutions?

“Destroy the temple!” Jesus said. And the revolutionaries among you would say, “Yeah! Down with the temple! Down with the institution! Let’s get rid of the distraction and the corruption we see!”

Oh yeah? Down with the Temple so we can start another Temple, create another distraction and corruption in its place? Have we learned anything from the history of the church so far? Apparently we all made the same mistake the Jews made. They thought Jesus was talking about the institution. They mocked him, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?”

No, Jesus was not against the institution! You can see his disciples committed to the Temple. Despite the corruptions of the priests, the hostility of the people, the first Christians gathered daily in the Temple court for worship (Acts 2:46); Peter and the author of this book, John himself went to the Temple to pray (Acts 3:1).

No, Jesus was not talking about the institution, “21But the temple he had spoken of was his body”, the text said.

Jesus is the Temple!

The solution is not in removing the physical institution. The solution is re-focus on Jesus. We don’t really get to meet God in the church. We meet God in the person of Jesus!

Physical institutions come and go. The temple Jesus cleanse ended up being destroyed in 70 AD when Titus sacked Jerusalem. But that’s not the first time God destroyed his Temple. The first Temple built by Solomon was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar after the Jewish people forsake God. The second Temple built at the time of Nehemiah and Ezra was also destroyed a few centuries afterward. This third Temple built by Herod the Great didn’t even last a hundred years.

Physical institutions come and go, but Jesus’s body will always remain. Christ’s Body is His Church; and God’s people lasted forever.

A few decades from now, we may be old fashioned, get off-course, and need cleansing by the next generation. But if we keep on removing our distractions, and keep on re-focusing on Jesus in worship, we will constantly be renewed!
Keep on removing distractions and re-focusing on Jesus, and you will be able to turn market place into place of worship; you will be able to be taught by God, even from entertainment you see in the world; you will be able to see Christ in many of your social contacts; you will be able to show case your character in even failure and defeat; and you will be able to become a resource instead of just consume.

Jesus is still visting His Temple today, and this morning many of you are being whipped. Listen to His voice and repent. His whip for us is only made of cords, hurt a little, but designed for healing. But the whip He endured for us, made of leather, attached with cattails, designed to rip off the flesh on his back and torn of his bones.

By His whip we are heal; by His own destruction, we are restored.