Distracted?

John chapter 2 beginning in verse 12. This is God's word, eternally true. After this, he went down to Capernaum with his mother and brothers and his disciples there. They stayed for a few days. When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem in the temple courts He found men selling cattle, sheep, and doves and others sending a table's exchanging money. So he made a whip out of chords and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle. He scattered the coins, the money changers, and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves, he said, get these out of here. How dare you turn my father's house into a market? His disciples remember that it is written, zeal for your house will consume me. Then the Jews demanded of him what miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this. Jesus answered them, destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days. The Jews replied, it is taken 46 years to build this temple and you are going to raise it in three days. But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scriptures and the words that Jesus had spoken. Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, many people saw miraculous signs he was doing and believed in his name. But Jesus would not entrust himself to them for he knew all men. He did not need man's testimony about man for he knew what was in a man. Hearings are reading. There is a response of thankfulness that is printed for you there in your bulletin and up here on the screen. The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Thanks indeed. Let's pray. Distraction. When I was in fifth grade I think, I had just gotten a new downcoat and this was like 1977 and so there is nothing all the downcoats where they are kind of now. That's gotten popular again where you got the stitch. It was all like side stitches at that time as big puffy stuff. That was a new thing. Downcoat. We had gone to the ski stores in russia from new york and gotten this downcoat for me because I had grown my previous coat and I was spending the night at my best friend's house David Morris. David's house was fun to go to. He had other kids in the neighborhood and next door to him was a high school senior named Sean Rogers. Sean was very gracious to see play football with us and he introduced me to Boston Boston. He had just gotten that album in 1976 and sat me in his room and played it for me and it was just awesome. He was out and we were about to play flash light tag but we also had it was dark by this time Friday night. It was dark by this time but there are all these kids around and David's older sister Jennifer had friends sleeping over that night and David had at least me maybe some others sleeping over to his house. We're all around and just waiting to play flash light tag. It was cold I had my new coat on. We were throwing the football around and I was throwing the football to Sean. Now I'm a fifth grader. He's a high school senior and he throws it to me and I catch it and I'm going to throw it back to him but he wasn't expecting to throw back. There are a lot of people around and so he had thrown it to me like this and then I caught it and was throwing it back and when I got to about here I saw that his face had turned so he had thrown it to me and then turned this way and so his face had turned and I'm over there and I've got the ball here and the ball releases and it goes and I was thrown it to him so I could catch the ball like this and so it was going to hit him in the side of the head so you know what I did. I said Sean! He turned his face and hit him right in the face. Now Sean was fun and he didn't he said what are you doing? He wasn't super mad at me but sometimes distraction can be dangerous and he had gotten distracted in the midst of throwing football back and forth and his nose paid for it there and I could have been a little more alert myself but when we look at this passage about Jesus going to the temple early on in his ministry he's come from Canaan the wedding there where he did his first miracle and Jesus was a good Jew and so I went to the Passover feast each day of his life down in Jerusalem and they go down there from Canaan and Galilee and down down here and finds the temple and there's been a lot of distraction among among the Jews there and so for us as we look at this passage we say what does God want us to see here from this passage for us in our faith and and one of the things is this and if you like filling out blanks in an outline you're welcome to do that you can just listen if you want to do that that's fine but if you like to fill out blanks and that keeps you on track here we go first thing know know that your faith the Christian faith is about God low and behold right this is one of those duh points but we'll see why it's not a duh point later that was also late 70s expression we said that all the time to our friends duh but at your faith the Christian faith is about God and we see this in verse 14 and 16 Jesus is here verse 14 there the people had gotten distracted with all these other things they they were selling cattle sheep and doves others were sitting at tables exchanging money there and so verse 16 Jesus says to those who were selling doves get these out of here how dare you turn my father's house into into a market and so we see here that this emphasis here that our faith our religion and religion is not a dirty word if you've heard Christianity is not a religion it's a relationship okay Christianity is a religion it's a religion about Jesus and it's a religion that's true okay so I say religion in a good sense here but your faith in our religion is about God and so we see we look at this passage and we see that the Jews God's people the people who held the scriptures that people the people who could read the scriptures of all the people on the earth when Jesus was living who could read the scriptures and know what God is like they had lost this that their religion their faith was about God and they were they were distracted but this is nothing new if you read the Old Testament and are honest about it most of the time God's people Israel had forgotten that their religion their faith was about God himself they got distracted in all kinds of other things whether it was foreign armies coming in whether it was other gods or whether no God at all most of the time God's people in the Old Testament are being unfaithful and God's having to deal with that that's why we have so many books of the prophets and the Old Testament God sends prophets when his people are not being faithful except for Nahum Nams the only prophet that doesn't rebuke the people but the other 17 whatever it is are rebuking but Jesus shows this in verses 14 and 16 here that the temple was to be about God his father he calls the temple his father's house and indeed we know from scripture that that our faith is about God Jesus quoted other people quoted when Jesus asked him about it what's the central commandment of the law and so I've listed there for you Mark 12 30 you know love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength what is our faith about our faith is about loving the Lord our God with all our heart soul mind and strength not about the peripheries of the temple but a loving God with a heart soul mind strength and this isn't something new in the New Testament this is quoting Deuteronomy 65 Moses is saying here's the central point and when we see it in the New Testament on the lips of Jesus the question is what's the most central command in Moses and so this was to be the case as Jesus came into the temple on this Passover on this Passover week that the faith was to be about God the greatest commandment to love him that's what our faith is about it's not about sheep and doves so hey they're in your outline your soul the soul of every human being was made made for God you were made for God I was made for God non Christians they were made they were made for God and for his being honored and declared magnificent or glorified say when we glorify God we're declaring him magnificent worthy of praise one who is highly honored by us that's what we're we're created to do made for God made to bring him glory made to declare his worth made to honor him our souls were created that way our bodies as well and so and so as they have 43 seven everyone God says everyone who is called by my name whom I formed and made I have created for my glory that they might honor me that they might give me high reverence and high praise right glory that term giving high reverence and high praise so be be the christian's faith is about the christian's faith being about God is thus a salve s-a-l-v-e a salve something you on an ointment you put on you to heal you so if you've got you know a skin and you know we've we've learned that more now or not as a kid you know when you had a cut you know you get you left to dry as much as possible and now they say you know put ointment on it and and and let it heal so you won't get a scar that kind of way but it's a salve to us when we hear that our faith that your faith your religion is about God that's a salve for you it's a it's a relief I think that's your other word yeah it's a rule or it's a great prize that's your other word it's a great prize for you so it's good news that your faith is not about you it's good faith that you're not that your faith is not about you getting stuff and doing things the right way so you can get stuff that's exhausting and that's not good for your soul because you weren't created for that you weren't created to be about yourself and that's why when you take the last piece of cake you feel guilty I had to go over there during the scripturine because my blood sugar was getting low and I was starting to get a headache so I went over there and I was glad I wasn't taking the last brownie and lemon cookie um while we read scripture there but yeah when we take the last piece of cake we feel guilty because we were created to glorify God to show him off to show what he's like and God is generous God doesn't take the last cookie unless someone insists and they've made it for us then we say well okay and inside we're saying yes right but it's a healing balm for us to find out that our faith is not about us that our faith is about something outside of us that is God who deserves praise and our souls know that that's right it's a great relief it's a great relief for us uh when I went to Miami Florida the first time I was in second grade we had gone to Disney World would flew into Orlando and this time they you know you just stepped off the plane and walked on the tarmac walked on the asphalt I remember getting out of that plane in Orlando and it was like I was getting baked you know I just know I was a kid who comes from Rochester, New York and we had snow on the ground and I get out and it's just all this heat and it's moist heat just surrounding me so we had a fun time at Disney and then we went down we drove rented a car and drove down to Miami and so we got out right away on the beach in Miami and we it was so fun I'd never been to the beach before and and my brother and sister and I were out and we stayed out a long time on the beach in Miami and we were read before we left the beach and so um fortunately back in those days they had solar cane they still have it I looked it up solar cane solar cane was like now it was like uh it was a lotion you could put on and it was white and and it was like cooling it was like you know he presented a cooling sensation to your to your back and if you're lucky you had the spray because then someone didn't have that because there was we were hurt and we had blisters and that kind of thing the next day um but the the fact that that our faith is not about ourselves is it's it's this relief for us the solar cane for our souls so to speak it's relief it's like oh okay good it's not about me even though my son nature wants my faith to be about me um so see it's a salvage relief to your soul because this your religion the Christian faith connects you it connects you to the reason for your existence that's why it's a relief that your faith is not about you that your faith is about god because then what your faith is doing the Christian faith is doing it's connecting you to your reason of being your the reason for your existence it makes everything fit in the universe you're you're plugged in to the right thing the right voltage um there um perhaps David's words in Psalm 274 which we're you can look there are called a worship perhaps this is David encapsulating just the essence of this that that our souls and all all we are is created for god look what he says there one thing I ask of the Lord this is what I seek that I may dwell in the house of the Lord the temple all the days of my life to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple to just get lost in him to be about him to have my my focus be upon him and think about David all that he had he was king over Israel appointed king by god himself god had given him victory in every battle that he had gone into he had all this stuff but he said here's the most important thing for me that I could just seek the Lord all the time that I could gaze at the Lord's beauty that I could learn that I could learn of him so this the underlying central human aspiration and goal to be about god and not be about ourselves um we get released from our slavery to sin when we believe in Jesus and and our souls have been freed then to pursue this and we see this and we acknowledge this so we understand positively our faith is about god but this is just like I said a duh statement right your faith is about god duh but it's not a duh statement because it was the case in Jesus day that their faith was supposed to be about god too and they had missed it how it this how this happened how had this happened um religion or even church or even a Christian person can have their faith be about other things often things that are not god um and in Judaism and Christianity um our faith can be about things that are peripheral within our faith right sheep and and doves they were commanded to be sacrifice there at the temple so it wasn't like they were going out and you know getting nerf hoops and playing nerf hoop in the temple court or playing shuffleboard in the temple courts um they were doing things that god had commanded but they had gotten distracted by these peripheral things of their faith the doves and and the sheep that they were to sacrifice and the reason there were people exchanging money is because you know that people would come and instead of traveling a long way and god allowed this traveling a long way carrying a sheep or bringing a sheep with you the whole time you could just arrive there and buy a sheep um and and offer that as a sacrifice but they had gotten distracted by that um and their faith had been think of all these money changers and people selling always Passover week I think if you're sheep salesman right what you're what Passover meant to you if i'm going in the black this week um and the money changers and a fee for changing money and so all these people were there and gathered for the Passover celebration which was supposed to be about god's great deliverance from slavery in Egypt and how god has been so good to us that's the Passover was about a celebration of god and his goodness to his people and instead it had become about these peripheral things so number two number two in your outline your faith is about god and not about the stuff not about the stuff that surrounds the Christian faith it's about god and not about the stuff that surrounds the Christian faith religion is about god not the selling of sheep and doves or changing money um god is commanded that the sacrifice of sheep and doves occurs but we're not to get distracted about that um they were not to be the attention getters but as we see here the Jews had made their sight of worship about these things and about the temple building itself see the interchange with Jesus here in this passage um they're mad that Jesus had gotten rid of these distracting elements you know verse 16 there um to those who sold doves you said get these out of here but the Pharisees are mad about this you've taken what are the peripheries and we're mad that you've taken our peripheries from us and they're not hearing Jesus this is this is this is my father's house if this is to be about god and not about doves and sheep they're mad about they're mad about this um and they're prideful about the temple building look at verse 18 when Jesus starts talking about the temple you know forget first second what Jesus is really talking about but see their pride in the temple building and that their faith was about this temple building that they had they say it took us 46 years to build this temple see the pride there um and and you know so we can do that kind of thing too what's our stuff what's our peripheral stuff that can take the place of god in our Christian faith it can be a church building obviously not for for us um here but for some it can be look at this building and this some people choose a church because it's a pretty building okay um none of you have kudos to you um but but peripheral stuff that people can have be what their church and what their faith is about perchains youth groups special services Christian podcasts the latest book of a favorite Christian author women's ministries men's ministries conferences choirs do you have a choir there um you know that i tell Betsy not to tell me about what she's reading on on uh like Facebook moms groups she tells me daily about the stuff that goes on in faith but it doesn't work so she tells me but but one of the discouraging things for us is people come to their new to town and they say looking for a church and they name these things do you have this do that do this do you have that and they're they're naming these perfect do you have dubs there when i shop can i buy a dub right in the temple court how's your coffee do you have a coffee bar there how about a bookstore where i can buy some books there and exchange some money that's awful close isn't it um how about instead i'm noted i'm new to town i'm looking for a church that teaches me about Jesus we never hear that well i heard that from you guys

i heard that this week and they're here today um but but i do you teach me how to live my life so i can glorify god do do is your church centered around Jesus or or are you about bouncy houses for your kids for our kids during the service um will you wash my car while the service is going on while my car sits in the parking lot uh but no we how about i'm looking for a church that really centers on Jesus to teach of Jesus to dive into the Bible which teaches of him so that i can know and worship him better is he the focus of your church or are you worried about having a nice church i don't like that phrase um having a nice church here's why it means do you have all the accoutrements that'll make things nice for me give all the things that i would like in a church i'd like a church with this and that and if you're older i want them all if you're younger sorry you know it's amazon you know i want i'll just shop at amazon it's got everything uh but but that's that's the quet that's the question um having a nice church um in other words are you do you have all the stuff and you keep it polished right um but Jesus doesn't respond while that does it he says this is my father's house this is about him um and so he's greatly offended he turns the tables over there and he yells um with all this uh with this christian peripheral church stuff while it's not evil it's not evil to have a women's ministry it's not evil to drink coffee it's not evil to have a men's ministry or or whatever there are many things that are appropriate that are allowable uh for us to do but it can easily bring us to lose our focus on god himself and that's the danger of it a book was written uh maybe about ten fifteen years ago called simple church i didn't read it i said where that okay next but but it's nice and and we we do intentionally keep things very simple here you know that if you've been around for a while and and that's on purpose it's so we don't get distracted as to what the church is about what your faith is about our faith is about god and we're not going to give you this stuff out here so you can get confused and think you're a good christian because you show up for seven events during the church week we're we're going to give you Jesus and and we're going to ask you for that to be enough now you know we have more than that you know there are other things that come along uh but that really is it very intentional for us um we don't want us to mistakenly have our eyes and care instead upon um the worship market right that Jesus calls his father's house has been made into a market or a magnificent building so know your faith is about god not about christian stuff we're focused to make the church about him um so number three number three your faith is about god and particularly your faith is about Jesus your faith is about Jesus this is what's separate think about the gospel john john is writing to Jewish people who have become christians and they were being persecuted by Jewish people who hadn't become christians that's the setting that's the context in which god inspires this book through the apostle john write this book the gospel john and he's writing to Jewish Christians being persecuted by non or Jewish Christians being persecuted by non christian Jews and so note this is what separates most of those who are reading the gospel john from their relatives from the friends they grew up with because their friends could say well my faith is about god too i follow Moses yeah and the Pharisees literally say that to Jesus well we follow Moses uh but we're separated in that we specifically and particularly follow Jesus believing him to be god who came to earth john one verses one through four in verse 14 the word and well came to earth and dwelled with us so we're separated by this Christianity is it's about Jesus it separates us from all other religions because we are about him christ alone right as we sang this morning so a in your outline there the first the center point of Jewish religion in the Old Testament to focus them upon the Lord was the temple okay so god creates the temple the tabernacle first and then the temple to focus his people upon him and so we see this great center point in in first kings five through eight where Solomon builds the temple it's this big production we're given how tall things were how wide they were how deep they were all this stuff and they they build it and god shows up and fills the place with a with his you know glory cloud and he centers his people's focus or their attention upon himself through the temple and so he creates the temple with reminders of him so there's a lampstand to remind people he's the light of the world which Jesus is he gives them a table full of new bread each each week to remind him he's the bread of life he's the sustainer of life he's the one who gave them bread in the wilderness he sets them up with a throne in the holy of holies the the arc of the covenant and he tells them I'm enthroned above that my very presence is there and the only person who can come into my very presence my inner throne room is the high priest one time a year and he better have purified himself rightly or he will die but god are they they have this communicated to them that the god is present among them um and and and they're to remember this that they come into the temple and the temple even as they saw it as they came from their various places and around Israel they saw the temple that was to focus their minds upon the Lord the focus their minds upon the Lord so they have a physical visible structure to focus them upon the Lord their faith their existence their existence of the people is because the Lord has gathered them gathered them together so that was the center point of Jewish religion the temple now b b Jesus taught here in John 2 that he is the temple that he is the temple the center point Jesus is of a focus upon the Lord so you see look at verse 19 verse 19 Jesus answered them destroy this temple that she meant was his body this temple and I will raise it up in three days I will raise it again in three days so he's referring to his death destroy this body and I will raise it up in three days Easter Sunday I'll rise again the Jews replied took us 46 years to build this temple it's his first 20 and you're going to raise it in three days and then verse 21 John adds this comment but the temple Jesus had spoken of was his body after he was raised from the dead his disciples we John says we realized we recalled what he had said and we believe the scripture in the words that Jesus had spoken so in the Old Testament the temple was the center point of true faith now Jesus the temple because he is the temple is the center point the center focus of true faith of anyone who's on the earth today so number one number one what was the Old Testament temple what was it about what was its essence and importance in the Old Testament the temple that's your blank in the Old Testament the temple marked God's special presence the temple in the Old Testament marked God's special presence among missed his people right in the center of his people their God was his presence was there he was present there in the temple in the midst of his people and so we see that in those couple of places there and then number two and Jesus was Jesus was what the Old Testament temple prefigured it he was Jesus was as he stood there speaking these words in John 2 he was God himself present in the midst of his people see the temple was just a shadow to foreshadow Jesus the temple was a shadow that the God dwells in the midst of his people that's how kind he is he's with his people dwells in their midst and that's what the temple showed God's people all through the Old Testament as the temple was up up and running and now there Jesus stands God himself present in the midst of his people and he says destroy this temple the real temple not the shadow temple I'm standing in to use the words of Hebrews but the real temple and I'll raise it up in three days so a couple of ways this is true a in your outline there today today Jesus is with Jesus is with his people by his spirit today Jesus is with his people by his spirit who in dwells and is always with Christians so Jesus is a true temple who dwells in the midst of his people and he dwells in you by his spirit who he whom he has sent to you so 1 Corinthians 12 13 when you came to faith he baptized you with his spirit and then 1 Corinthians 6 19 Paul tells them the reason you don't you aren't to do sinful things with your body is because the Holy Spirit lives in you you are a temple of the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit lives in you he says in 1 Corinthians 6 19 Hebrews 13 5 tells us this and our day as we live our lives that he will never leave us and he will never forsake us God is with you if you believed in Jesus he is with you is Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit is in you and will never leave you God and this is why this is why Paul calls you a temple of the spirit as well God in the midst of his people and particularly you now be this is also true at the end of the age be this is also true at the end of the age when Jesus returns that's your blank when Jesus returns to the earth from heaven he'll be with us on earth dwelling with us so you can look there in the declaration the gospel on page 1 again our declaration the gospel speaks of this when Jesus comes back this is final judgment has just happened and John looks in his vision and behold there's a new heaven and a new earth for the old heaven and the old earth has passed away there's no longer any see and Jesus declares I'm making everything I'm making everything new and then verse 3 John here's a loud voice from the throne saying now the dwelling of God in the new heavens and new earth now the dwelling of God is with men and he will live with them they will be his people and God himself will be with them and be their God so the old testament temple symbolize this or for for shadowed this that we would have a God who dwells with us in in our midst and that's true today because the Holy Spirit lives in you as a believer and will not depart from you and it's true when Jesus comes back as well when Jesus himself will come to the earth again and dwell with us in the recreated heavens heavens and earth so see see that's the center point the center point of Christian religion for today and for forever when and after Jesus returns to the earth then redone is the true temple Jesus the center point just like for old testament Jesus their center point was the temple our center point is the temple too it's just that that temple is Jesus so we focus we focus upon him and since he is God as we focus upon the temple we're focusing upon God himself there's no longer that disconnect between you could in the old testament you could focus on the temple and forget about God now when we focus on the true temple Jesus we're focusing on God himself because Jesus is the temple as he says here in John in John 2 Jesus is the center piece we see this all over the New Testament I'll give you some some verses here so John 316 Jesus says I'm the center of this faith and here's how he says it for God to love the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but every turn of life that is every person on the earth their salvation centers around what they do with Jesus Jesus is the center of salvation for every person not just for Christian people for non-Christian people if non-Christian people don't believe in Jesus they don't have salvation because it centers upon Jesus there is no other way in speaking of that John 146 Jesus says this I am the way and the truth and the life no one comes to the Father but through me you know how he came to God into his presence in the Old Testament through the temple you left wherever you were in your house in some area of the promised land and you approached God as you approached the temple and the closer you got to the holy place that temple proper and the holy and holy is within that the closer you were to God himself and Jesus says I am the way and the truth and like no one gets to the Father but through the temple you can't get close so think Old Testament you can't get close to the presence of God unless you come through the temple doors because if you're outside the temple you're not that close to them but if you're in the temple you're close and so Jesus says no one comes to the Father but through me I'm the temple Matthew 22's wedding banquet Jim read that for us this morning what's happening there a father is throwing a banquet in honor of his son and why is the Father so offended why does he send people out and destroy them where they'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth because they refuse to honor his son Jesus is the center point this is why we talk about Jesus so much we honor Jesus the Father is up in heaven saying awesome if you're a parent and have a kid you know how awesome it is when your child is being honored you feel that too don't you you're happier for your child if you're good parent you're happier that your child is honored than that you are receiving honor but that's the point Jesus says the Father sent me he's throwing a banquet that I'll tell you about in AG 95 when John writes Revelation 19 the wedding suffer of the Lamb the Father is throwing that and it's in my honor you'll want to celebrate or you're too busy with other stuff you want to plan a field you want to dive into being entrepreneur build a business and not come to church anymore right or you want to drop what you have and come and and celebrate the Father's honored son the Father has said everything up so it's centers around his son he glories in this she's so excited that his son is receiving honor how else do we see this besides Matthew 22 John 5 22 and 23 Jim red for us Jesus said moreover the Father judges no one surprise at final judgment you're not going to stand before the Father on his throne you're going to stand before me now John 5 Jesus is in this intense argument with the Pharisees who are you know trying to embarrass Jesus and Jesus keeps embarrassing them because he of course knows everything but Jesus says moreover the Father judges no one but has entrusted all judgment to the Son next verse so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father he who does not honor the Father or he who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him the Father sets Jesus that the Father could have judged the Father could have been the judge at final judgment but he gives that honor to Jesus so that everybody has to stand before Jesus and say I'm so glad to be here thank you for saving me and Jesus receipts honor and we bowed before him willingly and would joy in our hearts but also those who have spurned him all their lives they too Philippians 2 9 through 11 they must bow their knee before the Son and declare him Lord and God that's the Father honoring the Son everything is about Jesus our faith is about Jesus final judgment the Father has set it up to be about Jesus have you but did you bow the need of Jesus during your life great wait here I'm a read your name from the lambs book of life or did you refuse to bow the need okay well bow it now bow it now while I read off your sins and show you that what you're about to experience in the lake of fire you've well-earned right we've well-earned that we just get out of it because Jesus endured it for us so God exalted Jesus to the highest place and gave him the name that above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord so your faith is about God particularly your faith is about Jesus don't forget this don't be distracted everything is about Jesus and honoring him and worshiping him your life is about how much Jesus be honored by me now in what I do and what I say so summary summary your faith and the church is not about the stuff of Christianity your faith and the church is not about the stuff of Christianity it's about your two blanks Jesus himself your faith is about Jesus himself