The First Cleansing of the Temple

John 2:12-22 – The First Cleansing of the Temple

                Once again we will be spending three days discovering all the truths contained within this passage.  John here places the incident of Jesus cleansing the temple at the beginning of His ministry.  Scholars have been debating this account for centuries.  Some have started that John did not follow a chronological sequence in His account of Jesus’ life.  Others say that there were two cleansings of the temple.  One at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry and another at the end.  Here is what we know.

                Jesus went down to Jerusalem for the Jewish Passover.  One of three recorded in John.  This is where scholars and the church get the idea that Jesus’ ministry lasted three years.  When He came to the temple He found it in terrible shape.  He found merchant and moneychangers doing business within its walls.  He took a whip and chased them out.  They had made the temple in to market place instead of the house of God,   The Jews after this incident wanted Jesus to prove His deity by a sign.  Jesus said He would build the temple again in three days.  Which we learn later would be His body.  John loved metaphors and today we will look at three applications of what we covered today.

1.        Never allow your temple to get in terrible shape.  As the temple of the Holy Spirit, Paul reminds us that we have been bought with a price so we are called to glorify God.

2.        You do not need a miraculous sign to know who Jesus is just be like Peter and John and follow Him.

3.        Never allow your temple to be anything but a temple or the Lord will come and do a cleansing and it could be very harsh.  Marc Brisbois once said, “Lord shock me now not later.”  Simply put the longer our temple goes unclean the hard and longer it will be to get it cleansed.