13 The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. 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.” 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?” 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.
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.
-John 2:13-25
*The following is a sermon preached at Red Door Church on Easter Sunday in 2025.
Working Smarter, Not Harder
Have you ever heard the expression, “work smarter, not harder”?
When I first began working in construction after college, I must have heard that phrase 100 times in my first few months on the job. I had always been a very hard worker and applied myself to whatever I was doing with all of my might.
But sometimes that works against you, especially if you are doing something in an inefficient way. If you are applying all of your might while using a tool but using it incorrectly it will often do less for you.
Over and over again, I found this out while digging trenches, installing drain or spraying foam insulation on the jobsite.
Many of the men I worked with would see me doing something and come over and correct me, “Not like this but like this.” It was a humbling experience but I was a good listener and appreciated the input.
The big lesson for me over and over again was that if you are given a tool or a new product, whatever it is, generally speaking, it is best to use the tool as it was designed and to follow the instructions. If you don’t, not only will you be less efficient but you might even harm yourself or damage something.
It is amazing how much this maps onto our spiritual lives as well.
God made us and has given us instructions for life, yet most of us are trying to do it our own way. We are using the things that he gave us but not as we ought to.
And the result is that we are empty, damaged and broken. Some of us are really trying hard but we are not following the instructions. We need to work smarter, not harder.
What is the smartest thing we can do? Listen to God. Listen to what He has told us. Listen to his instructions. When we do what God says, life is good, even if it’s hard, it’s good.
We are going to see this in our passage today.
Background
But before we get into all of that we need to get our minds around a few things first. So let’s get a hold of some of the details first before we jump in.
When arrive at this moment here in John 2 verse 13, Jesus has basically just begun his ministry. Just a few days prior to this he performs his first miracle at a wedding in Cana, which is a small town some 20 miles or so to the West of Capernaum, which was a fishing village on the Sea of Galilee.
Verse 12 just before our passage says that Jesus went to Capernaum and stayed there for a few days. Perhaps to rest after the events that transpired at the wedding.
Now, after having rested for a time, they make their way up to Jerusalem as it says in verse 13. Jerusalem was the capital city of the nation of Israel. Geographically it would have been south of Capernaum but you always went “up” to Jerusalem because it was situated on a high hill and was elevated higher than most of the areas around it. There was also some spiritual meaning to the expression, as it represented the place where people went to draw near to God.
And many were going up to do just that. Notice the passage says that they went to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover.
Some of you were here for our service on Thursday night and heard me talk about the Passover. This was a festival that commemorates the Israelites deliverance from slavery in Egypt, when God “passed over” every home that had lamb’s blood smeared on the door posts. The Passover celebration was immediately followed by the Feast of Unleavened Bread which lasts for seven days. These celebrations would have drawn pilgrims from all over Israel and even the surrounding nations.
Now over time, for convenience, merchants began to sell sacrificial animals, the cattle, and the sheep and the doves used in various festivals, on site at the temple. Those of you that have been here for our study of Leviticus know that sacrificial animals were a central part of the worship of Israel.
Without going into all the details of it at this point, suffice it to say that God required sacrifice to enter into his presence and to be forgiven of sin. God allowed certain animals to take the place of sinners as a substitute in payment for sin or for breaking one of God’s commands. If you have any questions about that you can find our series on Leviticus on our church YouTube page and there you will find some answers about all of this.
But as people came from a far, having the merchants sell the required sacrifice at the city, was a service to them and much easier rather than having to bring the animals on their long journeys.
Scholars say that these merchants used to set up their stalls across the Kidron Valley on the slopes of the Mount of Olives, outside the walled city at the time. But by this point, in Jesus’ day, we find them selling the animals for sacrifice in the temple complex itself.
And of course, as we read a moment ago, this deeply bothers Jesus. Let’s look again at verses 14 through 17:
14 In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. 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.” 17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
What made Jesus so upset in this encounter? What would provoke him to fashion a whip and go into the temple and drive the money changers and animals out of the temple?
This leads us right to our first point this morning.
If we fail to use God’s good gifts rightly, it is sin. This is what provokes Jesus to anger here: the misuse of the temple.
Point #1: If we fail to use God’s good gifts rightly, it is sin.
When we look at verses 14 through 17 we don’t find any evidence that Jesus’ complaint was necessarily with their practice itself. Jesus does not confront them here about some immorality in their trade itself.
In the words of DA Carson, a biblical scholar:
‘How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!’ he exclaims. Instead of solemn dignity and the murmur of prayer, there is the bellowing of cattle and the bleating of sheep. Instead of brokenness and contrition, holy adoration and prolonged petition, there is noisy commerce.
-Carson, The Gospel According to John, 179.
If the animals were across the valley, outside of the temple and the city walls—fine. But the expression “in the temple” in verse 14 suggests that the animals are now inside the temple courts. How can one pray and seek God if hundreds of animals are making racket and doing what animals do all inside the temple courts.
In Matthew’s account of this event, Jesus is recorded as having said that the temple was to be a house of prayer but they had turned it into a den of robbers.
The temple was not set up by God to be a market. It was given to them to be the place where they would meet God. It was at the Temple that heaven and earth met. It was at the Temple where God’s presence dwelled on earth and people would come there to encounter God.
But it had been perverted and turned into something else. Jesus was angry because they were distracting from the main purpose of the temple. They were embezzling grace. God had given them a good and gracious gift and they were misappropriating it—misusing it.
Perhaps you can understand this anger some. For quite a while I stopped watching sports all together because they had become political. Athletes and brands were using the platform to promote certain political ideologies, most of which were offensive to a large swath of viewers. No more were sports a place where people came together, they were an arena to get across one’s agenda and divide people. And it completely undermined the focus of the entire gathering, which was to see an athletic competition. Sports were to be a place where great athletes used their bodies and minds to perform extraordinary feats of skill that few others can. But it had been taken over and turned into something else. I stopped watching as did millions of others.
I think that may be a helpful example of what Jesus was feeling here. Being a merchant is a fine thing. Selling sacrificial animals as a service to those coming from afar—no objection. But not here. Not in this place. Not in the Temple of God. This is a place of worship and prayer. This was the place where people came to meet with God. Do not turn it into something else.
As imperfect people we have a tendency to do this with all of God’s gifts. Whether it be institutions like the family or marriage, or the church or the gift of prayer or how we read the Bible. We take so many things and use them in ways that are destructive.
So how do we avoid this? How do we keep from destroying God’s good gifts? How do we use them in a way that is good for us and brings honor and praise to God?
This is the great question.
And we are going to get a glimpse of how to do that in this next section. Let’s look now at verses 18 through 22.
18 So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” 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.
Here our second major point for this morning emerges. All of God’s good gifts point us to Jesus. So if we are to use God’s good gifts rightly, we must see Christ in them.
Point #2: If we are to use God’s good gifts rightly, we must see Christ in them.
Here in our passage before us today Jesus tells the Jewish authorities who come over to question him, that the temple is actually about him.
They take his words literally to mean the actual physical temple—though in another place Jesus does prophesy that the actual, physical temple will be destroyed. But here Jesus is not talking about that temple.
What’s he talking about?
He’s talking about his body. His body would be destroyed. In his body, the true temple, a great sacrifice would be made that would end all other sacrifices. In his body—in Him—going forwards people would meet with God. He was the living place where people come to meet with God.
Jesus was the place now, where Heaven and earth met.
It was in that temple, that would be nailed to a cross and be rebuilt—raised—in three days, where true salvation would happen.
The physical temple there in Jerusalem was a gift because it prefigured this—it foretold these things to the people.
You know, the temple was a kind of prophecy. Not all prophecy in the Old Testament is verbal. Some things are used by God to foretell something that is going to happen. The Exodus was an event that foretold a greater deliverance that was coming.
The temple was a thing, a place, that was crying out for some kind of fulfillment. As the thousands and thousands of animals were slaughtered there to forgive sin, knowing that it didn’t actually forgive sin. As the people came to meet with God but really couldn’t actually meet him. As the priests, who were sinful went in and out and mediated a relationship between God and people but they themselves too needed a mediator and didn’t have one. All of these things and many more were crying out for something greater.
And in our passage today, Jesus says, “the greater thing has come.” All of this was about me, Jesus says. This beautiful gift, this temple, was about Him.
And because they were more concerned with making a profit or about authority and such, they were misusing it.
And as the story goes on they continue to do the same. They miss Jesus in the temple, in the law, in the prophets, in the feasts, in the Sabbath, in everything.
This leads us to our final point this morning. Every good thing you have was purchased for you by the blood of Jesus.
Point #3: If we are to use God’s gifts rightly we must use them for His purposes.
We can look at these people in our passage today and think “man, those idiots, how did they miss Jesus. I mean he was working miracles. He was doing great things and they missed him.”
But they are not alone. You and I do the same, every day. We miss God every single day.
Let’s look at our final section, verses 23 through 25:
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.
This is not a flattering statement. The reason Jesus did not entrust himself to anyone, even those who believed, was not because they were honorable, good people, but the opposite.
They were far from God. They were sinners, lawbreakers, children of their father, the devil.
And you know what, so are you and I. This statement applies to all people. As it says in verse 24: “he knew all people.”
And this is precisely what God says to us in another place. Ephesians 2 says this:
“Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. 2 You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. 3 All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else.” (NLT)
That’s you and me. We are just like the merchants in the market that day. You and I all have blue lights behind us in the rear view mirror. Every single one of us. All of us have tables in our lives that Jesus would turn over. Jesus knows what is in us. There is no hiding it. There is no making up for it.
Now maybe what is on your table is not all that bad. Maybe like these merchants you have some justifiable commerce on your table. Maybe from a human perspective, it’s all good stuff.
Remember, the big problem here in our story today is not that these men are doing illicit activities. But it’s where they are doing them. One might say, it’s why they are doing them. From the way they challenge Jesus it is probably fair to say that they were doing it for profit, not really for God.
And that is a serious question each of us needs to ponder. Maybe you feel like what is on your table is good and okay. Maybe so, but if it is not done for God it has ceased to be good.
You might say that you are embezzling God’s grace. God has given you something and you are using it for your own purposes and not for his. That’s what these merchants were doing and Jesus flipped their tables over.
What are you doing with the things God has given you? What are you doing with your time and money? What are you doing with your body? What are you doing with your home? Your job? Your gifts and talents? All of these things were bought for you by Jesus’s blood. You do not deserve any of them, yet you have them because God is merciful and kind.
How are you using his gifts?
My guess is that there is a lot of embezzlement happening: we are misappropriating the gifts and grace of God.
Embezzling Grace
How do we fix this problem? How do we stop?
We open the manual. God has given us a manual. That is what the Scripture are. So many of us are laboring in our own strength, misusing all that God has given us. We have cast the manual aside, it sits on our shelves at home and collects dust.
The manual tells us that we must repent and believe. This is the daily task and calling of each one of us. Repent means to be sorry and stop doing the wrong thing we were doing.
Repent of trying to do things on our own, repent of trusting in our own ideas, repent of using God’s gifts for our own purposes. And believe the gospel.
What is the gospel? The gospel is the good news that Jesus Christ came to save sinners like you and me by living a perfect life, dying the death that you and I deserved for all of our disobedience and embezzlement and then rising to new life. It’s what he said in John 2. That he would destroy the Temple (of His body) and rebuild it in three days.
One of the things that believing this message means is allowing Jesus to turn the tables over in your life. Let him in and say, “Jesus, show me what I need to do. Tell him, Jesus I’m tired of working so hard to be good. I need you to make me good. I know what is in me and I need you to change it. Turn the tables of my life over and put them in the right place.”
That’s repentance and faith.
And when you do that, everything changes.
I pray you do that today.
