The Gospel of John

The Cleansing of the Temple

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Conversations, Panels and Sermons

Lesson: 7- 70

Genre:

Track: 07

Dictation Name: RR197D7

Location/Venue:

Year:

Let us worship God. Give unto the Lord oh ye kindreds of the people, give unto the Lord glory and strength, give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name, give an offering and come into His courts. Oh worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness, fear before Him all the earth.

Let us pray.

Our Lord and our God we come into Thy presence again mindful of all Thy blessings and Thy providential care. We thank Thee our Father that when we are mindless, asleep and heedless Thy government and Thy care are ever mindful of us. We thank Thee that underneath all the experiences of life are Thine everlasting arms. And so we come, our Father, to give thanks unto Thee, to worship Thee in all our heart, mind and being, to rejoice in Thy word by Thy spirit and to be empowered to serve Thee more faithfully. In Christ’s name, Amen.

Our scripture this morning is John 2:12-25. The Cleansing of the Temple, John 2:12-25.

“After this he went down to Capernaum, he, and his mother, and his brethren, and his disciples: and they continued there not many days.

13 And the Jews' passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

14 And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting:

15 And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables;

16 And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise.

17 And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.

18 Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things?

19 Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.

20 Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?

21 But he spake of the temple of his body.

22 When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.

23 Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did.

24 But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men,

25 And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man.”

The cleansing of the temple was predicted in Malachi 3:1, the temple was the house of God. It was His appointed dwelling place. God speaks throughout the Old Testament of the tabernacle and the temple as My house. Our lord in Matthew 16:18 speaks of my church, my house. As against this in Matthew 23:38 our Lord in His last appearance in the temple refers to it now as your house. When the sanctuary or church becomes mans it is doomed because God will move against it sooner or later. At the beginning and at the end of his ministry our Lord cleanses the temple. He cleansed it because it was properly His house, required to serve Him and not itself. The temples rejection of an inner cleansing set it apart for judgment. The occasion was apparently the Passover according to almost all scholars, a time when men made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Of course John in verse thirteen tells us plainly that it is the Passover and the context indicates that our Lord’s family went as did His disciples. It is necessary to see this episode in relation to the Passover because the Passover focus is on atonement, on the Lamb of God. John the Baptist had portrayed Jesus as the Lamb of God, the sin bearer in John 1:29. The cleansing of the temple is essentially related to John the Baptist’s proclamation and to the Passover. The matter is also related to the validity of the sacrament, to baptism and to communion. The domitis [sp?] controversy in the early church tore the church apart, it was over the sacraments, could a faithless or immoral priest or pastor invalidate the sacraments? Could a baptism be valid if an immoral or unbelieving or treacherous priest performed it? Or would the marriage be valid under such a circumstance?

The church rightly insisted against Domitis [sp?], that a faithless or immoral clergyman would not invalidate a sacrament if the form and words remained biblical and Trinitarian but a larger question still remains. What if the church itself is faithless and apostate? Can the sacraments of a church which denies the trinity and atonement, for example, have any validity whatsoever? Our Lord was not condemning the sacrificial system, He was not condemning circumcision or the baptism of gentiles nor the sacrifices of atonement but the whole corrupt system which had made a lucrative merchandise of the sacrificial system. After His second cleansing He declared the temple and its worship null and void and He said their house would be made desolate. Given this fact we cannot assume the validity of the sacraments if the church is Christ’s enemy. Our Lord in fact held that the religious leaders had in effect destroyed the temple. They would soon destroy the Lord of the temple by crucifying Him. Their response was ‘what sign showest thou unto us? Seeing thou dost these things?’ They demanded evidence that He had the authority to do such things, that is, to cleanse the temple. They did not contest the truth of our Lord’s charge, that the Lord’s house had been debased into a money making venture. Control of the sale of the sacrificial animals and the money changing was so profitable that the high priest would become immensely rich in a single year, a millionaire.

As a result the Romans insisted on an annual replacement of the high priest because they knew if anyone continued more than a year he could finance revolution. The temple leaders did not contest the validity of our Lord’s charge, only His right or authority to make them. There’s a fine distinction there, they didn’t say you were wrong, they obviously could not. They questioned His right to make the charge. He didn’t have the legal authority they held. While the corrupt are often very prone to legal technicalities as their defense no attempt was made to justify their practices. I had a call yesterday from someone who may lose in court on an issue involving thousands upon thousands of dollars. The case is an obvious one, he has been defrauded, but on a technicality he may lose. While our Lord’s response to all of this is very pointed: He says destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. Speaking of course of Himself as the true temple.

“Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?

21 But he spake of the temple of his body.”

In Matthew 26:61 and Matthew 14:58 we see that our Lord’s statement was twisted at His trial into a subversive claim. What is apparent from its use in the trial is that the statement registered with His enemies. There were two temples, the venerable building in Jerusalem and then Jesus Christ His physical body. One had to be the false temple and for the leaders of the people it could not be the temple which they controlled, for them that had to be the true temple because they controlled it.

For them the justification for the physical temple thus was their control over it. We see this very clearly in John 11:47-53.

“Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we? for this man doeth many miracles.

48 If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation.

49 And one of them, named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said unto them, Ye know nothing at all,

50 Nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not.

51 And this spake he not of himself: but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation;

52 And not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.

53 Then from that day forth they took counsel together for to put him to death.”

Expediency ruled them. They recognized that Christ’s focus was not national Israel but the kingdom of God and to them this was intolerable. It was for them far better to kill the Christ, the Messiah, then for the nation, meaning their rule over it, to perish. But because God rules totally the worst that man can do will only further His sovereign purposes. This is why John says with grim irony Caiaphas was a prophet in spite of himself. During their Passover stay in Jerusalem our Lord was active. In verse thirty three we have a reference to the miracles that He did. He was not merely a pilgrim and a spectator at the Passover but by His miracles essential to it. The first passive was in Egypt, it was the culmination of great miracles, the ten plagues against Egypt.

That Passover made clear that God’s salvation of some means death to others, that is, to the first born of Egypt. Our Lord’s miracles at this Passover set forth a like meaning: there was healing for some, implying there was death for others, death for all who would reject the Lamb of God, the blood of the true Passover sacrifice. We are told many believed in His name when they saw the miracles which He did. As Calvin noted to believe in His name was to believe in His authority. The miracles were a sign of His authority and many recognized it. We should remember that great numbers of Jews did become Christians after Pentecost and in Judea and beyond the early church was for generations exclusively a Jewish church. We must not forget that. Great numbers of Jews in the first century converted. Then over the generations many more did, a number of popes who were Jewish, perhaps the last one shortly after the year a thousand. Then our Lord’s trust and reliance is not on man for He knew what was in man, we are told. At the time of His trial those closest to Him deserted Him. The church does not rest on man’s faithfulness nor obedience but on Christ’s saving grace. We are told that many believed in His name but the church does not rest on the many but on Christ. The centrality of Christ is basic to our faith. In the history of Israel the temple was cleansed many times by priests, prophets and kings before it finally was cleansed and destruction promised by our Lord. The church also needs constant cleansing. It is a sign of serious danger when the church sees no need of cleansing and sees as enemies all who proclaim the need for continual cleansing and purification.

The church likes to think of reformation as a thing of the past, not a present need. In Jeremiah 7:11 we see that prophet’s efforts to cleanse the temple, he called the temple a den of thieves. In Zechariah 14:21 we have a vision of the temple purged of its Canaanites or merchandisers. Micah 3:12 predicted judgment on the old temple whereas Haggai 2:7-9 looked ahead to the days of the Messiah. There was no lack of warning of the meaning of substituting the worshipping institution for the Lord, of giving priority to the temple or the church over the Messiah. The Jews were warned and so too was the church which too often treats as trouble makers those who question its wrong practices, those who call attention to its sins. God’s house is forever in need of cleansing, of reformation in order to remain the house of the Lord. Let us pray.

Our Father, make us Thine instruments, teach us ever to cleanse ourselves, our homes, our institutions including the church, of all that is not of the Lord. Oh Lord Thou knowest that in church and state and across the board we are in need of reformation, of cleansing, in Thy sovereign grace and mercy. Make us a new people, a new and holy institution. In Christ’s name, Amen.

Are there any questions on our lesson? Yes?

[Question] Seems to me that the Jews engineering…

[Rushdoony] I’m sorry I can’t quite hear.

[Question] It seems to me that the Jew’s engineering the death of Christ has to be one of the greatest futile gestures of all time because it didn’t work and it goes on and on and on.

[Rushdoony] That’s true, the steps taken by the ungodly over the centuries beginning with the Tower of Babel have been steps of remarkable futility and yet they believe they can make it work. I’ve been told and I’ve mentioned this before, that in the central institution of the European community someone had put a picture of the Tower of Babel and written underneath it: this time we will make it work. They will not give up. Of course if you believe that you are the true God then you are going to persist.

[Question] Sounds like a lot of our politicians today.

[Rushdoony] Yes they continue with failed experiments. I believe his first name was Igor Shafarevich, a Russian scientist who wrote a book on the socialist phenomenon. And an essay in Igor Shafarevich’s From Under the Rubble on the same subject of how socialism going back to the ancient [unknown] revolution where a Rushdoony named Isaac defied the [unknown] and died. The [unknown] of Persia. Men have sought to create, Shafarevich pointed out, a socialist world where man ruled absolutely and they’ve always failed but they are always sure they are going to come up with a gimmick to make it succeed but as he points out it has basic to it a will to death and as scripture tells us all they that hate me love death. So it is very much a will to death as Shafarevich pointed out. And yet men persist in trying to accomplish that same dream. Apparently Washington D.C. has decided that what the Soviet Union could not do they can do. Any other questions, yes?

[Unintelligible Question]

[Rushdoony] Yes, many believed in Him, they believed that He was the Messiah. They undoubtedly like John the Baptist as we see in Matthew thought He would make Himself king and John sent messengers to ask what’s happening in effect, why aren’t you proclaiming your kingship. But Jesus did not commit Himself unto them, He didn’t tell them, look my kingship is not of this world, not derived from an earthly kingship but heavenly, and first I must be the redeemer. Men must be saved from sin and death.

Because He knew all men and need not that any should testify of men for He knew that was in man. At the miraculous feeding as we’ll see later on in John they tried to seize Him and compel Him to be king. In other words what are you fooling around with all these healings and miracles and preachings, you are the King, you are the Messiah, now take over Jerusalem and rule. This is what they wanted. Yes?

[Unintelligible Question]

[Rushdoony] They wanted an earthly kingdom, yes, which would rule over all the nations. Our foreign policy seems to indicate that we have the same idea. Well if there are no further questions let us conclude with prayer.

Our Father we give thanks unto Thee that our king is not only greater than we are but beyond all earthly control, that the word and the act are of Thee, from heaven and that Thy rule and government over us is total. Give us grace therefore day by day to commit all our ways unto Thee and to lean not unto our own understanding but unto Thy word and Thy truth. And now go in peace, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost, bless you and keep you, guide and protect you, this day and always, Amen.