Jesus Gets Angry
Sermon Audio
Sermon Notes
Today we’re continuing our teaching series called Visible God, which is all about seeing God through the life of Jesus. We’re studying a book of the bible called the Gospel of John, which records the life and words of Jesus as it was written by an original source, an original follower of Jesus. Our hope in doing this series is that you’ll get to see more clearly, our invisible God made visible through Jesus, and what you’ll get to see me clearly from today’s text, is that Jesus gets angry over religious corruption...Jesus gets angry over religious corruption...
Now religious corruption is something a lot of non-Christians get angry about, and are quick to point a finger at Christians when it occurs. They’ll get angry, be quick to point a finger whenever there’s a sex scandal in the church, money being stolen from the church, or pastors living in mansions and flying around in their private jets. But just like a non-Christian shouldn’t be labeled by all the sex scandals, robberies, and greedy corruption that occurs in their world. Christians shouldn’t be labeled by all the corruption that’s occurred in the church world. Besides Christians get angry over religious corruption too!...We have that in common with each other, we get angry over religious corruption too!...In fact some of you sitting here today might’ve been hesitant to step foot in a church or stopped going to a church because of religious corruption you’ve seen in the past. It’s not that you stopped loving Jesus, it’s that you stopped going to church because of religious corruption. If that’s you I want you to know we’re glad you’re here, and although we’re not a perfect church, we do share your frustrations over religious corruption. It’s a poor reflection of our faith, a poor reflection of Jesus, and today’s text will give us a clear reflection of Jesus that shows us he gets angry over religious corruption just...like...us. Let’s turn to John 2:12-25 and get into it. If you open your bible to the middle, turn right to find Matthew, a few books to the right of that is John. We’ll be in John 2:12-25. The title of today’s message is Jesus Gets Angry, and here’s the big idea. Jesus gets angry over religious corruption, but zealous for genuine worship...Jesus gets angry over religious corruption, but zealous for genuine worship.
Context:
Here’s your context. John’s the author of this book of the bible, he’s very good friends with Jesus, he was a part of Jesus’ inner circle, and last week we learned that ch. 2:1-11 marks the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. Jesus is at a wedding, he performs his first miraculous sign at this wedding, and it does 2 things. It brings his disciples to faith, and brings a lot of joy to the wedding. Jesus chooses to do his first miracle at a wedding, to lead his disciples to faith, and to show us he’s a joyful God who came to bring us joy, not to kill our joy. But in today’s text we’re gonna see Jesus gets angry. He gets angry over religious corruption, and I’ve broken the text down into 3 sections: Corruption, Anger, and Zeal. We’ll see religious corruption, Jesus’ anger over religious corruption, and Jesus being zealous for genuine worship. Let’s check it out.
The Word:
John 2:12-25 states, “After this he went down to Capernaum, with his mother and his brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days. 13 The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.” Okay so after the wedding in Cana Jesus travels to Capernaum for a few days, and then heads to Jerusalem to celebrate The Passover of the Jews. The Passover took place every year at the temple in Jerusalem, it’s where the Jews celebrated the time God passed over their homes, allowing them to survive and be delivered from 400 years of Egyptian slavery. It was a week-long festival, it was a very celebratory time for the Jews, and many Jews traveled from all over the world to be a part of the celebration. In fact Jerusalem’s population would’ve quadrupled during this time to more than 1 million people. Jesus is there participating in the celebration, but here comes the religious corruption.
Vs. 14, “In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there.” There’s the religious corruption. It’s that the religious leaders have allowed the temple, this place of worship to turn into a marketplace and banking system. It’s like an out of control flea market, with thousands of people negotiating back and forth on the prices of animal sacrifices. It’s a complete mess, it’s corruption, and here’s why. When the Jews celebrated the Passover they had to bring an animal to sacrifice for the forgiveness of their sins. Well imagine having to travel by foot from other parts of the world, over rough mountainous terrain with an animal, with good old Big Bertha. It was difficult for a lot of people, so having the merchants at the temple was a nice convenience because it allowed them to buy an animal when they arrived. But here’s where it gets shady. The merchants would jack the prices up over 20 times the actual value of the animal. So it’s a lot like going to Disney!...I’ll take a Churro and Coke please. “That’ll be 50 bucks”....50 bucks for a Churro and Coke! It’s ridiculous! The prices at Disney are ridiculous, just like the prices at the temple are ridiculous. They’re charging people over 20 times the actual value of the animals, and the religious leaders are in on it.
See a lot of people either couldn’t afford the inflated prices, or they didn’t want to pay the inflated prices, so they’d bring their own animals to the Passover. The problem is the religious leaders were the ones who had to approve of the animals, they had to make sure it didn’t have any blemishes and met certain sacrificial regulations. So you know what the religious leaders would do? They’d tell the people who brought their own animals that their animals weren’t good enough so they had to buy one from the marketplaces, and then they’d get a cut for the referral. These religious leaders are corrupt, they’re shady, and the text tells us they even allowed the money-changers, the banks to be in the temple area. It was another way for them to make money, because if you came from other parts of the world your currency wouldn’t have been good in Jerusalem. So you had to exchange it for local currency, and the bankers charged higher than normal rates for that too. The religious leaders got a cut from that too for allowing them to be in the temple area. It’s shady, it’s corrupt, people are being taken advantage of, and the poor can’t worship at the temple because they can’t afford it. Jesus walks in, he sees all this, and gets angry.
Vs. 15, “And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. 16 And he told those who sold the pigeons, ‘Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.’” Jesus is angry...He’s clearly angry here. Some people like to picture Jesus as a tolerant, soft spoken, docile version of Mr. Rogers, but it’s not true. Like I said a few weeks ago Jesus is both tough and tender, he’s a tough Lion and a tender Lamb. At the wedding he was very tender, but here he’s being very tough. He’s standing up for what’s right, standing up against the religious corruption taking place at the temple. He’s angry over His Father’s house of worship being turned into a house of trade. The temple was meant to be a house of worship, a house of prayer, a house where all people were welcomed and able to worship God. But they’ve made it difficult for people to worship God there because they’ve turned it into a marketplace, a house of trade. In other parts of the bible Jesus says they turned it into a den of robbers. He’s feeling the same angry emotions we feel whenever we hear about religious corruption in the church.
Now sometimes Christians think we shouldn’t get angry or that it’s a sin to get angry, but that’s not true. Ephesians 4:26 tells us to “Be angry! Just don’t sin in your anger.” So it’s okay to get angry, it’s just not okay to sin in your anger. In fact it’d be wrong if we didn’t get angry over certain things like sin, injustice, oppression, or even religious corruption like what’s happening in the text. Jesus gets angry over this religious corruption, and for some of you it’s shocking to see Jesus getting this angry. It’s because you’ve believed in a tolerant Jesus who’s loving and accepting of everything. But that’s clearly not the case here. Jesus isn’t tolerant and accepting of everything, and deep down inside you don’t want him to be. You know how I know? Because it’d bother you if Jesus was tolerant of the religious corruption in the text and didn’t do anything about it. The fact that it’d bother you means what you really want isn’t for Jesus to be tolerant of every situation, it’s for Jesus to be tolerant of you. Those who believe in a tolerant Jesus don’t really want Jesus to be tolerant of every situation, they just want him to be tolerant of them. But Jesus isn’t tolerant of everything, especially sin and religious corruption like in the text. The temple isn’t being used as a house of worship, it’s being used as a house of trade, a place to make a corrupt profit, and Jesus is angry over it. He wasn’t impulsive in his response, but did have a righteous anger in his response. It was a righteous anger, over an unrighteous thing.
Vs. 17, “His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’” There’s the zeal part of the text. We’ve seen the corruption, the anger, and now the zeal. Jesus has a zeal for His Father’s house of worship, a passion for seeing people genuinely worship God the Father. He’s so zealous and passionate about it that he gets angry when it’s not happening. He gets angry when people treat the temple like a marketplace, instead of a place of worship.
Again vs. 17, “His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’ 18 So the Jews said to him, ‘What sign do you show us for doing these things?’” The religious leaders aren’t accepting Jesus’ correction, instead they’re questioning his authority asking for a sign, asking him to prove he has the authority to talk to them this way. They’re making a good profit in their corrupt system, and they’re upset over Jesus challenging it. They’re like “We’re the religious professionals. Who the heck are you? What right do you have to talk to us like this? Show us a sign to prove your authority over us!” Listen to how Jesus responds.
Vs. 19, “Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ 20 The Jews then said, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?’ 21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body. 22 When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.” Jesus is talking about them destroying his body, not the physical temple. He’s talking about his own death and resurrection from the dead. These religious leaders don’t get it though. They’re like “Yeah right! The temple was destroyed by the Babylonians and it’s taken us 46 years to rebuild it. We spent millions of dollars, had thousands of builders, carpenters, bricklayers working on it, and you’ll rebuild it in 3 days! Whatevs!” But Jesus is talking about his body, not the physical temple. He’s saying “You want to see a sign to prove I have the authority to do all this? Then kill me and I’ll rise again in three days.” Jesus is predicting his own death and resurrection here which is incredible. I mean it’s easy to predict your own death, anybody can do that and take their own life. But it’s another thing to predict your own resurrection, which Jesus does on numerous occasions including here. Jesus is saying he’s our visible God who came to live, die, and rise again for the forgiveness of our sins. He’s saying he’s the center of worship not the temple. People used to go to the temple to meet with God and make sacrifices for their sins, but now they can go to Jesus to meet with God and receive the forgiveness of their sins. Worship is now about going to a person, not a place.
Vs. 23, “Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. 24 But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people 25 and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.” The text says many “believed in his name,” and at first that sounds like good news. But it’s not good news, because the text also says Jesus didn’t “entrust himself to them,” meaning he isn’t buying it...Jesus isn’t buying that they truly believe in him. John says it’s because Jesus knew all people, he knew what was in man. John’s pointing to a divine attribute of Jesus, it’s the omniscience of Jesus, meaning Jesus is all knowing, and so he knows the hearts of the people saying they believe. He knows what’s really going on in their hearts and can see right through their fake nominal belief. He knows they don’t genuinely love him, they love the miraculous signs he can do for them. They don’t have a genuine zeal for him, they have a zeal for what he can do for them. What we’re learning is there’s a kind of belief that isn’t genuine belief. It’s a fake nominal belief where the person isn’t following Jesus out of a genuine love and zeal for Jesus, they just want to get something from Jesus. So Jesus doesn’t entrust himself to them, just like you wouldn’t entrust yourself to marry somebody who doesn’t really love you, who’s only with you because of what they can get from you.
Now this is a big issue for Orlando Christianity. Orlando Christianity is full of people who come to church not out of a zeal for Jesus, it’s out of a zeal for their needs to be met, and the moment their needs aren’t met they’re out...They’re out...It’s really not much different than the religious corrupt in the temple. I mean as soon as Jesus shakes things up a bit, stops meeting their needs, starts challenging their beliefs, they turn against Jesus instead of submitting to Jesus. It’s the same thing nominal Christians do when Jesus stops meeting their needs and challenges their beliefs, they dip out on Jesus and the church. Jesus is confronting this type of fake nominal belief in the text, and because of the heavy nominalism in Orlando it’s possible he’s confronting some of your hearts here today. It’s possible Jesus is saying “I don’t believe you truly believe in me, you truly have a zeal for me. Instead you have a zeal for what I can do for you and you’re only here as long as I’m meeting your needs.” If you’re feeling that stirring, if Jesus is exposing your nominal belief today...then praise God for that, because it means he loves you and desires to have a genuine relationship with you. He wants you to fully believe in him, submit your life to him, have a genuine love, zeal, relationship with him. If you already have a genuine zeal and passion for Jesus, then let your life and worship reflect that zeal and passion. I know there’s zeal and passion in you, because it comes out when you shout at sporting events, sing at a T. Swift concert, or promote your beliefs and businesses on social media. If you can express a zeal and passion for those things, you can express a zeal and passion for Jesus. It’ll look differently for each of us, but it should be expressed by all of us, who have a genuine zeal for Jesus.
The Big Idea:
Look here’s the big idea...Jesus gets angry over religious corruption, but zealous for genuine worship...Jesus gets angry over religious corruption, but zealous for genuine worship... So if you’re not a Christian I want you to know Jesus agrees with your anger over religious corruption. He has a zeal, a passion for genuine belief, genuine followers, genuine worshipers and he invites you to be one of them. He has you hear today so you can repent of your sins and believe that he’s your Visible God who came to live, die, and rise again for the forgiveness of your sins. He’s inviting you and anyone who realizes they have a nominal faith into a genuine relationship with him. If you want to accept that invitation and become a genuine follower of Jesus today, then tell the person you came with or any of our team members after the service, and we’d love to talk with you about it.
If you’re a Christian, a genuine believer, I want you to know Jesus cares about your heart and attitude in worship. Our hearts desire should be for an increased zeal and passion for Jesus. It should be for us to walk into our Sunday gatherings with a zeal and passion to worship Jesus for the miraculous work he’s already done on the cross, over the miraculous work we want him to do for us now. If the only miraculous sign Jesus ever gives you is salvation through his death and resurrection, it should be enough to produce a zeal and passion to worship Jesus. If it’s not, it means you’ve misplaced your zeal and passion for something else. It happens sometimes, but today’s text is a reminder that we should have a zeal and passion for Jesus above all else, even over the things we hope to get from Jesus. So let’s turn our zeal and passion back to the cross. Let’s stand to express that zeal and passion for him and him alone. Let’s stand to worship Jesus.