Jesus Passion For Reverence

Does your worship honor God?

 

John 2:12-16  After the wedding He went to Capernaum for a few days with His mother, His brothers, and His disciples.  13  It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration, so Jesus went to Jerusalem.

14  In the Temple area He saw merchants selling cattle, sheep, and doves for sacrifices; He also saw dealers at tables exchanging foreign money.  15  Jesus made a whip from some ropes and chased them all out of the Temple. He drove out the sheep and cattle, scattered the money changers' coins over the floor, and turned over their tables.

16  Then, going over to the people who sold doves, He told them, "Get these things out of here. Stop turning My Father's house into a marketplace!"

17  Then His disciples remembered this prophecy from the Scriptures: "Passion for God's house will consume Me."  18  But the Jewish leaders demanded, "What are You doing? If God gave You authority to do this, show us a miraculous sign to prove it."

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In the previous post Jesus revealed his glory at a wedding. He changed pots that had just been filled with water into the best wine without even touching the pots. Jesus glory was revealed in this miracle yet the guys that were directly involved in the miracle didn't get it. Jesus left that ceremony with his mother, his brothers and his disciples but the servants didn't go.

Three things that show us that Jesus is God:

✔  Jesus passion for reverence, John 2:13-17
✔  Jesus power of resurrection, John 2:18-22
✔  Jesus perception of reality, John 2:23-25

-John MacArthur "Jesus Displays His Deity"

Jesus made the 85 mile trip from Capernaum to Jerusalem to attend the first Passover during his three and a half years of public ministry. Since there were so many people that wanted to be in Jerusalem to celebrate, his 30 plus hour walk must have been with a mob of people.

When the thousands of people reached Jerusalem they needed to exchange their foreign money for the currency used at the temple and they needed to have an animal for their sacrifice. The religious leaders saw the need as an opportunity to make a load of money.

It would be next to impossible to focus on having a time of worship in that crowd. I think that it would look more like a noisy flea market with sellers trying to get you over to their booth and then there would be the noise and smell of all of those animals. And you think its difficult to worship when a baby cries in church.

This story may not look like a miracle to you but can you imagine the possibility of one man armed with a makeshift whip forcing that many people out of the temple? The crowd or the temple police or even the Roman authorities didn't do anything to stop Jesus.

Sincere Worship
Romans 12:1  And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all He has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice--the kind He will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship Him.

Almost all of Jesus miracles were prompted by love and compassion for people but in this miracles Jesus passion for his Father's house is the motivation for this miracle. Jesus never tolerates irreverence toward God. The Old Testament prophets told us that the Messiah would be passionate about cleaning up the temple. The Jews expected the Messiah to come and attack the Gentiles but instead, the Messiah came and attacked them.

The things that break God the Father's heart are the same things that break Jesus' heart. If we are close to God then the same things will break our heart as well. How well do you tolerate insincere worship? Do you sing lyrics to worship songs without any thought to what you are singing?

What Is Worship?

God's greatest joy is when his people are praising him with sincere, repentant hearts and our greatest joy in life should be to bring joy to the one who made us and gave us the riches of heaven as our inheritance. God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.