#3075 John 15 – A

This program is brought to you by Israel restoration Ministries.
What are you doing Sunday nights? Come join Friendship with God radio Bible teacher Tom Cantor of the Friendship with God Fellowship Church every Sunday night at 5:30 p.m. at The Vine at 9336 Abraham Way, Santee, California. Watch and listen live around the world to Tom Cantor Sunday evening on youtube.com by searching for Friendship with God Fellowship or by going to our homepage at friendshipwithgod.org.
That’s friendshipwithgod.org.
Welcome to Friendship with God with our Bible teacher, Tom Cantor. Today’s message and previous messages can be listened to or downloaded for free at friendshipwithgod.org.
Let’s first of all pray. Father, we thank you this morning for a word of light. We thank you, Lord, that you are light to our souls.
And so we pray, Lord, illumine us with your word this morning in Jesus’ name, amen. All right, John chapter two verse 18 says, Then answer the Jews and said unto him, What sign showest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?
But he spake of the temple of his body. 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 that Jesus had said. Now, when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover and the feast day, many believed in his name when they saw the miracles which he did.
But Jesus did not commit himself unto them because he knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man. Now, in our last study, we saw how Christ at the beginning of his ministry, because keep in mind, this is the beginning of his ministry, that he went up to Jerusalem at the Passover, because for him, that Passover was the most important feast of the year. The Bible describes the Passover in Exodus 12.1, Exodus 12.1, where it says that the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, this month shall be unto you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year unto you.
And then he said, speak thou unto the congregation of Israel, saying, in the tenth day of this month, they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers a lamb for an house. So the Passover was so important that God said that because of the Passover, the calendar year would be reset to make that month, which was the month of Nisan, that’s the month that Passover occurs in, that was all of a sudden going to become the January of the year. Why was that?
Because a Passover was when a family was saved. They were saved from the destroying angel because God said in Exodus 12, 13, Exodus 12, 13, God said, when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the flag will not be upon you to destroy you. Now, that’s important and relevant for us personally.
Why? Because we each have our own Passover when we make 1 Corinthians 5, 7, 1 Corinthians 5, 7, a reality to us, which says, Christ, our Passover is sacrifice for us. So the Passover, therefore, is also the most important feast for us, because it symbolizes for us when we came to know that we were worthy of being cast into hell, and that there was no hope of any appeal.
And that was the time when we heard God say, in our souls, when I see the blood I’ll pass over you. And that was when we each knew that we were walking, each of us knew we were walking right down the middle of the road to hell. We knew that.
And that’s when we heard God say, there’s another way. There’s a way for you to be saved. There’s a way for you to not be cast into hell.
And the way is, John 129, John 129, the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world. That’s when we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ as our personal Passover, Lamb of God, to take away our sin. And with that act of receiving Jesus Christ as our personal Lamb of God, we started a new life, a whole new life started for us.
Life began for us and God says, yes, that’s right, as a matter of fact, it’s a birth, it’s a new birth, it’s being born again. And that new birth resulted in us, 2 Corinthians 5, 17, 2 Corinthians 5, 17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.
All things are passed away, behold, all things are become new. The day we were born again was the first day of our new life in Christ. And for us, that was our birthday, and for us, we might as well reset the whole calendar, our personal calendar, to make that month when we were born again become the first month of the year, our personal January.
Because the month we were born again was the first month of our first year in Christ. And that’s why God told Israel in Exodus 12.2, Exodus 12.2, reset the calendars, make Nisan the first month of the year. Because Christ is the Passover lamb of God.
Now, he went up to Jerusalem every year of the Passover, and the first place that he went to, when he went up to Jerusalem, was the temple. He went to the temple. He went in the temple expecting, hoping, I guess I should say, hoping to find a house of prayer, a house of prayer.
But instead, he found not God’s house of prayer, but the devil’s house of profiteering, profiteering. Well, that’s what he found in the temple. Found in the temple, what he found in the temple was the same thing that the Maccabees found in the temple when the Greeks, time of Hanukkah, when the Greeks had made the temple a house of Greek gods and they were sacrificing pigs.
And really, the whole meaning of Hanukkah, everybody thinks about the light and the candles, the whole meaning of Hanukkah is that the Maccabees found the temple as dirty place, dirty with idols and so forth, and they had to cleanse it and fill the temple with God’s light. That’s the Hanukkah lights, fill the temple with God’s light. And in the same way, Christ, he’s like the later come, Maccabee, who comes to the temple, he finds it dirty with money making and he had to cleanse it.
And so in verse 15, verse 15 of this chapter, it says he drove them all out of the temple. That’s the cleansing. Now, it had a tremendous impact, what he did, on two groups of people.
The first, Christ’s act of cleansing the temple had an impact on his disciples because they remembered a scripture that came to their mind. John 2, 17, verse 17. His disciples remembered that it was written, the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.
So they remember Psalm 69. They remember Psalm 69, verse 7 through 9. It says, because for thy sake I have born reproach, shame has covered my face.
I have become a stranger unto my brethren and an alien unto my mother’s children. For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up, and the reproaches of them that reproach thee are fallen upon me. So the disciples remember Psalm 69.9.
They remember Psalm 69.9 that said that the zeal for God’s house just consumed Christ, ate him up. But they also remember the context of Psalm 69.9, which says that reproach and shame would cover his face. That’s what happened to Christ on the cross for our sins.
They also remember the context of Psalm 69.9. They remember this context that says that the brothers of Christ would not know Christ, his mother’s children. He would be a stranger to them.
And yep, that’s what happened. His brothers, his mother’s children, Mary’s children, they didn’t know Christ. And they also remembered that the hatred of the people towards God would be focused on Christ.
Just as the hatred today of Christ is focused on us, reminds me of how the Jewish press, I think you’ll have it, I believe in this warning in Bolton, how the Jewish press in Israel reported how our messengers in Israel who were distributing this book changed and placing a lot of expense, print and ship and all, placing envelopes, great cost, put in the envelopes. How the Jewish press is saying, bravo to this one person who’s made it his business to go around and pull them all out of the mailboxes and put them in the trash. We should sue that person.
But anyway, there’s only one word to describe why he did or does what he did and what he does. And when I told Clint about it, Clint said, he said, what hatred he has for Christ. It’s only one word, hatred, hatred.
Now, that’s the first group, the disciples. Now we come to the second group that’s impacted by what Christ did. And this is verse 18, verse 18.
Then answered the Jews and said unto him, what sign showest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? Then answered the Jews, it says in verse 18. Then answered the Jews.
Now the word answered is used, but an answer is given in response to a question. But there was no question on the table. Nobody asked a question, the Jews.
But it says in verse 18, then answered the Jews and said, so how are we to understand the word answered in verse 18? Well, the only explanation is really, couldn’t be better than the title of Josh McDowell’s book, evidence that demands a verdict. What Christ did when he cleansed the temple was place a question that demanded an answer.
And the question that was posed to the Jews when Jesus cleansed the temple was, well, what are you gonna do about this? What will you do with Jesus, who’s just exercised an authority over the temple to have cleansed it? Basically, the acts of Christ posed the same question to everyone and to everyone that question is, what will you do with Jesus?
It’s just like the song in our hymnal. What will you do with Jesus? Neutral, you cannot be.
Someday, your heart will be asking, what will he do with me? So the Jews saw Christ cleansed the temple and that posed the question, what will you do with Jesus? Neutral, you cannot be.
Someday, your heart will be asking, what will he do with me? And so the Jews answered that question in verse 18 with a pushback question. Pushback question, that was a question really of indignation.
It was really a question that showed their rejection of Jesus Christ. Now, when anybody is confronted with the acts in the recorded life of Jesus Christ, that same question is asked, what are you going to do with Jesus? When any person is confronted with the record of his death for sins on the cross, that same question is posed.
What’s your move? What are you going to do with Jesus? When anyone is confronted with the gospel as our LA San Diego Outreach teams, as our Summer Blitz teams, as the Israel Book distribution Campaign Now, then those who hear or read the gospel are asked the same question, what will you do with Jesus?
You can’t be neutral. And when the Jews in verse 18 saw Christ cleanse the temple, the question was, what are we going to do with Jesus? And the answer was, the answer was what it was, but what it should have been.
The answer should have been. Their answer should have been. We are Jews.
He’s the king of the Jews. We will stand with Jesus. We will assist Jesus.
We will help him cleanse the temple. We won’t object to him cleansing the temple. If we are guilty of making the temple a den of thieves, then we’ll repent and we’ll make the temple a house of prayer.
Oh, wouldn’t that have been wonderful? Wouldn’t that have been wonderful if that’s what we read in John chapter two? Boy, wouldn’t it?
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if those Jews would have fallen down and said, our God has come to the temple, his temple? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if they said, we remember Malachi 3.1, Malachi 3.1 where God says, behold, I will send my messenger, he shall prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant. Whom you delighted, behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.
Wouldn’t that have been wonderful if the teachers of the word of God there would have said, the word of God in Malachi has told us that the Lord will suddenly come to his temple, Jesus has suddenly come to the temple, he must be the Lord. Wouldn’t that have been wonderful? Wouldn’t that have been wonderful to have seen the nation of Israel convert at that point and worship Jesus Christ at that time?
Don’t forget, this is the beginning of his ministry. After all, this was his first public act that Jesus Christ did, and it was in fulfillment of that prophecy in Malachi 3.1, that he was gonna come suddenly to his temples, and the Jews should have hailed Christ at that point and said, God has come to his temple, he’s done a good work of cleansing his temple, purging out the uncleanness, that’s what should have happened. The Jews should have repented for their part, and they should have stood with Christ and helped him.
But, sadly, that’s not the history. In chapter 2, they did not stand with Christ, as a matter of fact, they stood against Christ in verse 18, verse 18, when they demanded, show us a sign. And the question that was very significant, because they used the words in verse 18, a sign unto us.
Unto us. What sign showest thou unto us? See, by using those words unto us, they were saying that they were above Christ and that Christ had to report to them, and they were saying that it was Christ, onus was on Christ to convince them that he had the right to cleanse the temple.
So already, in this first encounter with the religious authorities, they were saying, Christ needs to be brought into our court, he needs to be judged in our court, he will be convicted in our court, he’ll be condemned in our court, which is what’s going to happen in the future. So, these religious leaders spoke for Israel, they were representing the Jewish people, they were representing Israel, and already in the first encounter with Christ, they’ve made their decision for all Israel, which is John 1-11, John 1-11, he came unto his own, and his own received him not. Here they are making this decision to not receive him.
And their first words to Christ, they were establishing what would be their last words about Christ, which is going to be in Matthew 27-23, Matthew 27-23. They cried out the more saying, let him be crucified. And Matthew 27-25, Matthew 27-25, then answered all the people and said, his blood be on us and on our children.
That was very sad. And their response was not true of all Jewish people. So, just in case someone would say, well, right off the Jews, hold on a minute.
We’ve got chapter 3 coming right away. And chapter 3 is going to be of another smaller group of Jewish people represented by a man named Nicodemus. But as far as the religious leaders, most of the religious leaders, the vast majority, they sway the majority of the Jewish people.
Now, they want to see a sign? They already saw a sign. They already saw a sign, which was the ability of this one man to single-handedly drive out all those men who were making business in the temple and drive out all those animals that were being sold for profit for sacrifices.
That was a sign that Christ had the authority to cleanse the temple. But that didn’t matter to them. They don’t want to be confused with the facts.
As far as they were concerned, wasn’t enough, wasn’t enough to meet the requirements for proving that Christ had the authority to cleanse the temple. As a matter of fact, nothing would be enough for them to be convinced that Christ had the authority to cleanse the temple. Kind of similar to that man who lifted up his eyes in hell and asked Abraham, Oh, send somebody from the dead.
If somebody returned from the bed, that’ll be convincing to my five brothers. Abraham said, No, it won’t. No, it won’t.
It doesn’t even matter if somebody returned from the dead. It won’t be enough. They don’t believe the prophets in the Bible.
So they were convinced at that point that Christ had to be eliminated because he had crossed them because they were involved in this money making operations of selling the animals and exchanging money in the temple. And they were not willing to repent of all that. Now, that’s true today.
True today of people. If they’re not willing to repent of their sins, that God convicts them of, the response is hatred, hatred of God. And so they called Christ to give them an answer as to how Christ had authority.
And we can picture God the Father watching all this from heaven and asking a question of Psalm 21. Psalm 21, we can picture God the Father saying, why do the heathen rage? And the people imagine evade things.
He says, they’re taking counsel together against me and against my Messiah, saying, let us cast their bands of thunder and cast away their cords from them. And then it says in Psalm 24, Psalm 2, that God sits in the heavens and laughs. And he says in Psalm 26, Psalms 26, I have set upon my holy hill of zion, my king, and he declares a decree, Psalm 27, Psalm 27, he says to Christ, thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee.
And then he goes on in Psalm 210, Psalm 210, he says, he gives advice. He says, be wise now therefore, ye kings, be instructed, ye judges of the earth, serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the son, lest he be angry, and you perish from the way when his wrath is kindled, but a little.
Blessed are all they that put their trust in him. So we can see God the Father in heaven, it is being described by Psalm 2. Now, the temple after all, that’s God’s holy hill of zion.
And God the Father says in Psalm 2 that he set his Messiah on that hill and said, thou art my son. So, but those religious Jews did not take God the Father’s advice to put their trust in Christ, to kiss the son. They chose a road of suicide, which for them was standing against Christ and asking him for a sign to convince them.
So, at the end of verse 18, there’s a question on the table, what sign Christ is going to show to the Ed Authority. Now, he responds in verse 19, verse 19, Jesus answered and said to them, destroy this temple and in three days I’ll raise it up. So, he tells them that.
Now, that’s almost like a parable to them. They didn’t understand what he was talking about. And, that was so typical when Christ spoke to them, he spoke in parables.
Why? Because if a person wanted to remain in their state of willful ignorance of what Christ was saying, the parables allowed them to remain in the willful ignorance of what Christ was saying. And this goal of letting people who were in willful ignorance stay in the state of willful ignorance was the purpose of the parables, as he explained in Matthew 13, 13, Matthew 13, 13.
Therefore, speak I to them in parables, because they seeing, see not, and hearing, they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which sayeth, By hearing, you shall hear, and shall not understand, and seeing, you shall see, and shall not perceive.
Tom Cantor’s messages can be listened to and downloaded for free at friendshipwithgod.org. For other free resources, email us at tomcantor at friendshipwithgod.org or call us at 800-247-3051. Join our live services on YouTube by searching Friendship with God with Tom Cantor every Sunday at 5:30 p.m. Pacific Standard Time.
What are you doing Sunday nights? Come join Friendship with God radio Bible teacher Tom Cantor of the Friendship with God Fellowship Church every Sunday night at 5:30 p.m. at The Vine at 9336 Abraham Way, Santee, California. Watch and listen live around the world to Tom Cantor Sunday evening on youtube.com by searching for Friendship with God Fellowship or by going to our home page at friendshipwithgod.org.
This program is brought to you by Israel restoration Ministries.