Karen Beilharz: Welcome to Moore in the Word, a podcast of Moore Theological College in Sydney, Australia,
that seeks to glorify God through biblically sound, thought-provoking and challenging talks and interviews.
In this episode, from a chapel service held on Friday the 16th of May 2025, Mark Thompson, Principal
of Moore Theological College, speaks on John 2:12-22, and Jesus' cleansing of the temple in Jerusalem.
He reminds us that Jesus is not one-dimensional: the same Lord who turned water into wine also fashioned a whip of
cords to drive out the merchants, and therefore, we can't pick and choose and construct a Jesus that suits us best.
We hope you find the episode helpful.
Mark Thompson: Good morning.
Behold, I send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple.
Even the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight.
Behold he is coming, says the Lord of hosts, but who can endure the day of his coming and who can stand when he appears?
Let's pray together.
Heavenly Father, this morning as we return to John's Gospel, we pray that you might address us through your word.
We pray, father, that you might give us those words we need to hear.
Would you comfort those who are anxious or tired or depressed or in some way beaten down?
Would you challenge those of us who are complacent?
Would you open our eyes to see Jesus as he really is?
And would you enable us to live to His glory before we ask it in his name?
Amen.
The Jesus that John's gospel calls on us to trust with our lives.
To believe and obey is more than just one dimensional.
He cannot be flattened out to just one thing.
His mercy and compassion are real, overwhelmingly real, but they are not all he is.
He is the victor who triumphs and deals decisively with those who oppose him.
Nothing escapes his judgment.
Every knee must bow before him, and just the splendor of who he is shakes the earth.
But that too is not all he is.
He is the one who gives generously, abundantly.
And what he gives is not just more but better.
We saw that last time at the wedding in Cana, but he is just as much the one who deliberately makes a whip of rope and levels the most terrifying
accusation You make My father's house a marketplace you've turned worship into self-interest and ministry into a way to make sure you are comfortable.
I.
Now, you and I and everyone else, for that matter, have to deal with Jesus, not just a one dimensional cutout figure.
The real thing, the real Jesus and the whole of John's Gospel has one central purpose that runs from
the beginning to the end of it, that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God.
And that by believing you might have life in his name from beginning to end, this gospel is calling on you
and me to open our eyes and to see Jesus as he really is, what he's really like, what he's really done.
You might remember, uh, that at the end of the report of the wedding at Cana that we
looked at a couple of weeks ago, in the first half of John chapter two we're told this.
The first of the signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee and manifested his glory and his disciples believed in him.
And as we're gonna see, the account of the cleansing of the temple in Jerusalem ends with
something very similar, and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
There's more going on at the end of this scene than at the end of the last one, but.
In a very important sense.
You need to hold them both together.
So have a look with me at John chapter two.
Starting at verse 13,
the Passover of the Jews was near and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
The found in the temple precincts, those selling oxen and sheep and doves and money changes sitting and.
Making a whip of rope.
He drove them all outta the temple, even the sheep and the bulls, and poured out the coins of the money changes and overturned their tables.
And to those selling doves, he said, take these out of here.
Do not make my father's house a marketplace.
His disciples remembered that it stood written.
Zeal for your house will consume me.
The Jews therefore responded and said to him, what sign are you showing us that you do these things?
Jesus answered them, destroy this temple and I will raise it in three days.
The Jews then said, this temple took 46 years to build and you'll raise it in three days, but he spoke about the temple of his body.
Therefore, when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he
had said this, and they believed the scripture and the word, which Jesus spoke.
The great thing that Jesus had done in Cana, that turning of the water into wine was done behind the scenes.
He remained hidden as he gave them more than any of them could possibly have imagined.
Uh, the best wine and so much of it, but only a few knew where it came from.
During this Passover, at a time in the year when the population of Jerusalem usually tripled in size, what he does is done in the open.
Publicly dramatically and unambiguously everybody there that day, and very soon, many
others as well, knew who it was, who had driven these traitors out of the temple.
It had been a kind and gentle thing Jesus had done in Cana, stepping in to help in an awkward situation, giving generously grace upon grace.
It was a terrifying thing he did in Jerusalem, storming in without a word, to drive out those who had set up business in the temple and to reclaim
his father's house as Malachi had prophesied, the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple, but who can endure the day of his coming?
But it was the same Jesus at work in both.
It was the same Jesus making himself known in both, and it was the same.
Jesus triggering faith in both, and his disciples believed in him and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
So it's clear that one thing John wants us to know from the start is you cannot have one without the other.
You just can't have gentle Jesus, meek and mild.
Without Jesus, the judge for Jesus can't be domesticated.
He can't be tamed.
That's not even possible, but neither can he be weaponized, turned into something you'll use against others.
The zeal that he showed that day was not the zeal of calling down fire from heaven to consume the unbelievers.
It was zeal for his father's house.
It turns out you can't have Jesus, the judge without gentle Jesus, meek and mild either.
We need more than a one dimensional Jesus.
What's more our salvation needs more than a one dimensional.
Jesus, too.
We need the grace and compassion, the unexplained excess of mercy, and we need the judgment, the rescue, and the victory too.
We need to know Jesus is both the one who gives to us richly and generously, and the one who frees us from every counterfeit form of religion.
So if you are uncomfortable with the Jesus who will manifest his glory by getting involved in what seems like the trivialities
of everyday life, turning water into wine so that the bridal party is not embarrassed, seeing somehow beneath Jesus.
Then you haven't really understood him at all, and that Jesus you want is not the real Jesus, but a construction of your own imagination.
This was the sign he chose to manifest his glory and to show that what he brought
what he is, is more than just more of the same, but something new and better.
But the same is true if you're uncomfortable with the Jesus who plats a whip out a rope.
That's a very deliberate, determined thing to do, isn't it?
And then expels people from the temple overturns the tables and spills the coins everywhere, ordering those who are selling doves to get out.
And the only explanation he gives them is, this is my father's house.
How dare you turn my father's house into a bizarre, a marketplace, a center of commerce, a house of trade, a place where you can make a buck.
On another occasion, much later in his ministry, Jesus would do pretty much the same thing again.
But then he would quote Isaiah 56 and it would all be about the purpose of the house.
It will be called a house of prayer.
Here.
It's about the ownership of the house.
It is my father's house and the disciples recall Psalm 69.
Zeal for your house will consume me.
It clearly is more offensive than you or I can imagine.
To do what those men were doing in the temple.
It amounted to defying the owner of the house, my father's house.
It's astonishing that Jesus could talk like that, isn't it?
Not just our father's house, my father's house.
Those words say something about the house, but they say something about Jesus as well.
Now, of course, uh, bulls and sheep and dubs or pigeons were needed for the sacrifices.
It was just impractical for every family who came to Jerusalem to the feast, to to bring those along with them.
So you needed to find someone from whom you could purchase them in Jerusalem, and then you could take them to the priest.
And of course, money brought for the temple tax or a free rule offering needed to
be different from the everyday currency, which the Romans had brought with them.
With its idolatrous image of the emperor and its blasphemous inscription.
Tiberius Caesar, son of the Divine, or Augustus.
Jesus was not condemning the sacrificial system at this point.
He was not even condemning them for corruption or distortion.
Skimming their own little bit off every transaction, making sure the religion of the people paid, paid for them.
I'm pretty sure that that was happening, but that's not the issue here.
No.
It was a deeper problem than that.
It wasn't their house to do that in and doing it there, even if they had the goodwill of the priests showed contempt for the one whose house it was.
Well, as you might imagine, uh, those in charge were not happy with what had happened.
And so for the first time in this gospel, they demand a sign.
They demand something that would legitimize him as the one having the right to do what he'd just done.
And do you remember what Jesus said in reply there in verse 19?
Destroy this temple and I will raise it in three days.
How absurd.
He just caused chaos in the temple.
And what they heard him say was, well rip it all down and I'll raise it up again in three days.
Okay?
It might not be as grand as Solomon's temple, the king Herod the great, it
certainly put some effort into restoring it, but it's not just a pop-up shop.
It's not something that can be here today, gone tomorrow, back again the next day.
And they make that very clear, don't they?
This temple took 46 years to build.
You'll raise it up in three days.
What on earth was he talking about first?
If there's anyone that's been threatening the temple, it's him.
He's the one who's been destroying it.
Look what he's just done.
Everything's been disrupted this day's a write off, and now he's talking about
a complete knockdown rebuild, and in just three days, clearly out of his mind.
But then the writer of John's Gospel quietly whispers something that changes everything.
For those of us who read this.
And gives us an even richer understanding of what has just happened.
But he spoke about the temple of his body.
You see whatever else we might say about the dramatic events in the Jerusalem temple that day, they point beyond themselves to something far greater.
It's a long history of the sanctuary of God.
The place where God meets his people.
The garden, the tabernacle, the temple was coming to its great climax in Jesus.
He wasn't just going to be the builder of a new temple.
He is the temple.
Jesus himself is the presence of God in the midst of his creation.
Of course, the temple of stone and curtains and all the rest were still standing too.
It, it had not ceased to function as an important part of God's life with his people.
Not yet.
That won't come until that day when the curtain in the sanctuary is torn from top to bottom and the one on the cross cries.
It is finished.
No more sacrifices then.
No more need of bulls and sheep and doves.
On that day, it will very dramatically cease to be the meeting place of God and his people that will be a rock outside Jerusalem.
Jesus, the temple, uh, would be abused.
His body would be abused just as his father's house had been abused that day.
Those who conspired to get rid of him, handing him over to the nations, nailing him to a cross and watching him die.
They showed contempt, not just for the son, but also for the father who sent him.
But when they destroyed that temple, he will raise it up in three days.
Something astonishing was coming, and here's the very first glimpse of it.
You might call this Jesus' very first prediction of his own death and resurrection right at the beginning of his ministry.
You see, it's always on view.
Yet, not even the disciples were able to put it all together on the spot.
In verse 17, we are told they remembered the scriptures spoke about the Messiah zeal for God's house.
That's what they understood was being played out in front of them, but they didn't yet know that this was all about something more than that.
They would only make that connection between the defiling of the temple and Jesus'
death and the cleansing of the temple and Jesus' resurrection after the events.
Ah, so that's what it was all about.
I
here is the light shining into the darkness and the darkness has not, cannot overcome it.
The confrontation between the two between light and darkness builds from this point on, and some
people who've been stumbling around in the darkness will begin to see as we'll discover next time.
But this is who Jesus is, the giver of the best wine, but also the one who reclaims his father's house.
So what about you?
And what about me?
The picture of Jesus that is, um, starting to emerge even here at the beginning of John's gospel is uncontainable in any single category.
He is the word become flesh, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, the provider of goodness
and grace beyond limit, the one who will not allow defiance and contempt for his father to go unchecked.
And we can't just pick and choose the aspect of Jesus, we find most comfortable, most
congenial, and let the others slip into the background, perhaps disappear altogether.
There are, I'm sure you are aware, uh, many who try to do just that, echoing the culture we live in.
Some insist upon Jesus the includer.
The one whose wide open arms receive anything and expects nothing either before or after you come to him.
Inclusion's a a buzz word at the moment, but we need to see Jesus.
We're told as the champion of inclusion, the kind of inclusion that makes no changes, but just lets you
get on with life as you've been living it up to now without a word of challenge or right redirection.
Or perhaps Jesus is subversive, the one who breaks down all the constraints of nature and relationship.
Opening the door so we can make the world and ourselves in the way we want to, or perhaps in some
measure and reaction to those pictures, and especially the uncertainty and anxiety they've caused.
Jesus, the law giver, the one who demands and makes possible a new and better way of living, or Jesus the conqueror.
Who finds against everything and everyone who opposes us or Jesus, the, the sufferer, who knows what we are going
through, who is able to identify and sympathize with even the most intense and desperate struggles that we face.
And there is truth in every one of those pictures and more besides, but when isolated
from each other and other things Jesus said and did, they can lead to distortion.
Each aspect of Jesus' identity and mission informs and shapes the others.
We can't pick and choose and construct the particular image of Jesus that suits us best.
That's just make belief.
Brothers and sisters, we mustn't settle for a one dimensional Jesus.
He's much more than that, where given the celebration of the wedding at Cana.
Alongside the cleansing of the temple in Jerusalem, Jesus, the giver of abundant blessing and Jesus,
the one determined, fiercely determined to honor his father and reclaim what belongs to his father.
And the strength of both those pictures, both those perspectives into who Jesus is informing each other as they do.
Will keep us from a distorted single dimension as one preacher put it so eloquently.
If you want the one who fills our tables, you need the one who can overturn them too.
Shall we pray together?
Heavenly Father, we pray.
Would you help us to see Jesus?
Not as we imagine him to be and not as we would prefer him to be, but as he is.
And we want to thank you for his great zeal for your house, for your honor.
And we want to thank you for the mercy and grace that overflows to us.
Would you help us not to settle for a one dimensional Jesus, but to live?
As disciples of the full-blooded three-dimensional Lord, in whose name we pray.
Amen.
Karen Beilharz: Thank you for listening to Moore in the Word, a podcast of Moore Theological College.
Our vision as a College is to see God glorified by men and women living for
and proclaiming Jesus Christ, growing healthy churches and reaching the lost.
We invite you to attend any of our upcoming events, including this one in the Centre for Global Mission.
Since New Testament times, some of those motivated with a passion for sharing the good news of Jesus have
embraced ministry in very hard places, struggling with stony ground and with little or no obvious gospel fruit.
For hundreds of years and in many places around the world, this has also been the experience of some cross-cultural mission workers.
But what does God think?
Whether in a local church or in a missionary location, how does someone decide between struggling on faithfully, despite the lack of
visible gospel fruit, or moving to more fertile ground where God's Spirit is more obviously working, and where fruit is more available?
To help us think through these types of questions, join us for our next Centre for Global Mission event, when Richard Chin, National
Director of the Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students, will help us examine the Bible, and David Williams, Director of Training
and Development at the Church Missionary Society Australia, will give us insights from the history and practice of global mission.
Find out more and register on the Moore College website.
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