2018.08.31 Hopewell @Home ▫ John 2:13-22

Read John 2:13-22

Questions for Littles: What was at hand (v13)? Where did Jesus go? What did He find in the temple (v14)? What did Jesus make (v15)? What did He do with that whip? What did He say to those who sold doves (v16)? What did the disciples remember from Psalm 69 (v17)? What did the Jews demand from Him in v18? What sign does Jesus say that He will give (v19)? Why do the Jews think this is crazy—how long had it taken to build the temple (v20)? But of what temple was Jesus speaking (v21)? When Jesus had risen from the dead, and the disciples remembered what He said here, what two things did they come to believe (v22)? 

In the Gospel reading this week, we were reminded that Jesus’s resurrection means that have to obey every word that He says.

Jesus was certainly acting like a prophet. The response of the Jews in v18 is quite interesting. They don’t seem to dispute at all whether Jesus was right about what He said. Rather, they want to know what’s special about Him—what gives Him the right to say it? If He’s really a prophet, they insist that He perform signs like the prophets did.

It’s at this point that Jesus begins referring to His resurrection. No one understood Him at the time. Later, His disciples would come to understand that He meant His body. Paul tells us in Romans 1, that it was by His resurrection that Jesus was declared to be the Son of God with power!

Indeed, once He had risen from the dead, the disciples believed that the promised Savior and salvation of Psalm 69 had come. He had demonstrated Himself to be the long-hoped-for Forever-King.

That has implications for your life, doesn’t it? Jesus rising from the dead gives Him the right to confront us from His Word at all times and all places.

Often, when His Word exposes some wickedness in our lives, as He had done at the temple, we respond like they did: what gives You the right to say that? His resurrection is the great sing of His right to say it!

Jesus is the long-awaited Christ. The forever-King from the line of David. The prophet greater than Moses. And our lives must be a continual obedience and service unto Him!

What should we remember, whenever we are tempted to resist Christ’s Word?

Suggested songs: ARP45B “Daughter, Your Ear” or TPH358 “Sing, Choirs of New Jerusalem”