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[0:00] Good morning, everyone. Good morning, everyone. That's great to hear your voices even through the masks. So please turn with me in your Bibles to John chapter 1.

[0:14] And just so you know, Lynn just shared my greatest fear. The mic being on when I sing. So we're going to be in John chapter 1.

[0:27] If you're new, you've been away or just visiting, we are doing a study of the life of Christ. We are working through the four Gospels, kind of constructing the timeline of Jesus Christ and harmonizing some of the difficult texts.

[0:42] And when I say difficult texts, when we go through in history, sometimes some things don't seem to line up. But we're going to go through, we're going to cover those. Because I want you to be assured that the Gospels we have are indeed been written by men, driven by the Holy Spirit, that give us this word that is connected into history.

[1:02] And by being connected into history, it tells us that these are real people who had real issues, living a real life in a real time. Amen? It's kind of like us. But 2,000 years ago, these were people who experienced the same concerns, the same fears, heartaches, doubts that we have, they did as well.

[1:22] So, before I go any further, I just want to pray. I want to ask for the Spirit's anointing on this sermon. I want Him to be able to open our ears to hear what the Spirit wants to convey through this sermon, and that I'd have a clear and concise voice through this.

[1:42] Dear Lord, Heavenly Father, we just thank you for this marvelous Gospels that we have that point us to you, both your actions, your attitudes, your relationships, and your words that speak true truth, the deep truth of life, the truth that is apparent for all to see.

[2:06] It somehow, for some reason, man chooses to ignore. But God, as we go through this sermon series, I pray that we will be not only delighted in how Jesus responds to various people, but our souls would sing with the absolute understanding of your love and mercy, that we'd be astounded by the miracles and claims that you make as the Son of God, the Son of God who obeyed His Father, came down to earth and lived this human life.

[2:46] And may we come to a greater understanding of why you lived this life for 33 years, endured what you endured, all because your Father chose to place His love on us.

[3:01] God, may we marvel at the simple words spoken which convey such deep truths.

[3:12] So Lord, I just pray that we would come here with a clear mind. May you push aside the anxieties of the day, as it were, the thoughts that somehow captivate us for weeks on end and rob us of our precious time of meditation and prayer to you.

[3:34] May we come here with a focus and understanding that we stand in your presence, we stand under your word. And it's your word that we choose to be glorified by and through as we reach this community for you.

[3:49] We ask these things in your most holy and precious name. Amen. So if you were here with us last week, we looked at what I call the three final events of the life of Jesus before He began His public ministry.

[4:07] At this point, the only person who has any idea that He's the Messiah would have been Mary and would have been John the Baptist. And even as we see, there's this uncertainty that exists in John the Baptist if Jesus is actually going to be the one.

[4:25] But in this last sermon we talked about, we talked about the importance that Jesus, that Jesus in submitting to John's baptism, how important that was to fulfill all righteousness.

[4:38] We talked a little bit about that, that salvation that comes through Jesus Christ does not just simply come through Him dying, being buried and resurrecting, but there's also power in those years that He lived His righteous life that gets accorded to us.

[4:57] He's the one who fulfilled the law, the law that we were not able to fulfill, so that at that point on the cross, when Jesus intersected with the wrath of God, God's love is seen in us as He looks at us and He sees Jesus Christ.

[5:15] And the true reality is, when He looked upon His Son on the cross and He poured out His wrath, that was us. That was our sin, our rebellion, our foolishness, our brokenness.

[5:31] So we have this good news. And then on that moment of Him submitting to that baptism, He was anointed and given power by the Holy Spirit in order to continue in His ministry.

[5:41] And His first test, as it were, was the Spirit sent Jesus out to the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. So I contend those were the last events of Jesus' private ministry.

[5:58] Up until this time, Jesus had been patiently waiting for the herald to come, for John to Baptist to arrive. And then around, we believe either 29 or 30 AD, the voice cries out in the wilderness as He goes along the Jordan River, prepare the way of the Lord.

[6:22] Prepare the way of the Lord. For the first time in 400 years, God's people heard God's message from God's man.

[6:35] the anticipation would have been immense. And His cry was, repent, repent, be baptized, demonstrate your obedience, your loyalty, and your allegiance to the King.

[6:53] He is coming. He's coming. So the timing, as we learned, is probably at no better time in the eyes of history Israel was desperate for a king, desperate for a Messiah.

[7:13] They desperately needed someone to rescue them. And He's here. He's finally here.

[7:26] As I remarked last week, we are now going to go into the Gospel of John for the next two weeks. And there's an important ministry that Jesus Christ is going to carry out for eight months that is only recorded in the Gospel of John.

[7:42] If you know Matthew, Mark, and Luke, they record after John, or when Jesus returns from the wilderness, they pick up when He's doing His 18-month ministry in Galilee, which is northern Israel.

[7:59] But John's actually going to tip us off at why and how Jesus did these things. But more importantly, man, as I've been spending some time this week in this, I am blown away that we almost see every type of person that Jesus will encounter in His ministry reflected in these first four chapters of John.

[8:26] And I pray that you will be, I don't know what the word is, electrified, excited. But there's this beautiful picture that we get to see of our Lord and Savior in the upcoming ministry.

[8:40] For this sermon, the next two weeks, I want to cover Jesus' early Judean ministry by looking at the types of people that Jesus interacts with during this time.

[8:53] Alright? So that's my thesis statement. I want to center it around the types of people that Jesus interacts. And by doing so, I pray we're going to get a greater sense, greater understanding of what's going on.

[9:07] So please take a look at chapter 1, verses 29. So here is the situation. Jesus, he's in the wilderness, he's gone for 40 days.

[9:18] After those 40 days, remember, Jesus, in no time, does he use his power on himself. And in cases, I talked about this last week, 40 days without any food is pretty much the longest amount of time that a human being can go without food.

[9:36] So he's been out there 40 days, Satan comes against him, and he's exhausted. And Scripture tells us that God, in his wonderful blessing, sends these angels to go and care for his son.

[9:50] And these angels, it's not like they give him some magic food or formula, protein drink that's able to make him well. If you're familiar with the stories, and there's sad stories that happen in when the allies rescued the Jews from the concentration camps, a lot of the people were so emaciated, what's their first desire?

[10:12] To eat, right? They wanted to eat, they were being starved. But they had to actually ration their food, bring in nurses and doctors to bring them back up to health. And that would have taken months to happen.

[10:24] So we can speculate that Jesus Christ, at this point in time, in John 1 29, has probably been gone from the minimum 40 days, but I would argue probably around 80 days.

[10:36] So he's been out in the wilderness after fighting the battle with Satan. He's now recupering, recovering. And we have this man, John. So let's take a look at verse 34.

[10:50] And John, actually, sorry, I got my notes in the wrong area. It's verse 29. And it says, the next day, now notice when it talks about the next day, the previous day, the context is Israel's leaders had come to challenge John.

[11:05] Hey, what's going on? And John answers and they wondered if he was either Elijah, Christ, or a different prophet. It says, the next day, this is John, he saw Jesus coming toward him.

[11:17] And he said, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Now remember, for those 80 days, since Jesus was baptizing, John is still conducting his ministry.

[11:29] He's still in the wilderness. He's still proclaiming, not that the Messiah is coming, his message is, the Messiah is here. He's in your midst today. All right?

[11:40] So get ready, be prepared, be baptized. History tells us that when John was doing this, that he was, at that time, we can speculate, he was the most popular man in all of Israel.

[11:51] He was massive, so much so, the religious leaders know about him now. He's not just some bad guy in the wilderness. And as we speculated, it took effort to get to the wilderness.

[12:03] So to hear that call, you wanted this, right? You're a true Jew, an Israelite, you're familiar with the prophecy.

[12:15] Someone's out in the wilderness. You understand your situation. You got Roman control. The priests, as we're going to learn, were entirely corrupt religious system that you're a part of.

[12:27] You know this is not right, and you head out to the wilderness just with a glimmer of hope. A hope that this could be a true prophet of God calling us once again to him.

[12:42] And they were right. So it said, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Verse 30. This is he. So Jesus is coming to him and he's like, this is he whom I said.

[12:53] After me comes a man who ranks before me. Because he was before me. I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water that he might be revealed to Israel.

[13:09] And John bore witness. I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, he on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.

[13:30] And I have seen and I have borne witness that this is the Son of God. This is John giving almost legal testimony to what he is seeing.

[13:46] So the first person that I want us to see in the life of Jesus are the ones that are called. The ones that are called. And by this I'm not talking about a Calvinist type of stating where there's elect, non-elect, none of that.

[14:00] I'm talking about people who hear a message and are responding. These people have heard the message all over Israel and they are responding. So here they have John the Baptist testifying to them that this is indeed the Messiah.

[14:16] Take a look at verse 34. And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God. Those eight months that I have been out here in the wilderness, this is the one I'm talking about.

[14:33] This is the Messiah. This is the one I herald for. Now what we read in the next few verses is exactly what is supposed to happen.

[14:47] Let's take a look at verse 35. The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples. Now we believe that the disciples here are John who wrote the Gospel of John and James his brother.

[15:04] Okay? Why we believe this? We believe because there is we're going to we're going to learn that he knew the precise hour at the time that he met Jesus and spent time with Jesus.

[15:17] Isn't that true for most of us? That moment we came face to face with God's sovereignty in our lives? The moment we accepted Jesus Christ as Lord. For some of us we can know we can describe the event.

[15:27] I can actually tell you when it happened when I understood. Here we go verse 35. It says the next day again John was standing so this is John the Baptist was standing with two of his disciples and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said behold the Lamb of God.

[15:43] The two disciples heard him say this and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them what are you seeking? They said to him Rabbi which means teacher where are you staying?

[15:58] He said to them come and you will see. So they came and saw where he was staying and they stayed with him that day for it was the tenth hour. So this is the moment that the public ministry of Jesus begins.

[16:13] And he begins by calling those who were following John to follow him. And this is what we're going to see happen. The majority of the disciples we believe were already following John the Baptist.

[16:27] And as we go in the Gospels we're going to see that these great crowds follow Jesus. They began following John right? These were the ones that wanted the Messiah.

[16:39] They were familiar with the prophecies. They went out in the wilderness. They got baptized. So there is a response already been created within the people of God to follow Jesus.

[16:51] And this is what led to the messianic expectation they call it. Jesus was expected. So here we read about James and John and then we read later on about Andrew, Peter, Philip, and Nathaniel.

[17:07] these were the men that would eventually become part of Jesus Christ's twelve disciples, the apostles. And these were the people that are supposed to be drawn to Jesus.

[17:22] No herald calls anybody to follow him. Right? He calls people to follow the king. Amen? Amen? Man throughout church history is never supposed to call people to follow him.

[17:38] He's supposed to call people to follow Jesus. Amen? That's your role as well as believers in Jesus Christ. It's don't just do what I do but follow the one I follow.

[17:49] He is the one I live for. Come walk with me. Let's follow after Jesus. We even have this beginning model of discipleship happen. So notice on verse two, chapter two, verse one, it says on the third day, and we see John being pretty specific, Jesus had somewhere to go and this is the wedding of Cana.

[18:11] We're all familiar with the wedding of Cana. Even non-believers understand there's a story where Jesus turned water into wine and this is the event that's happening. Now as you all know, when we talked about the wedding of Mary and Joseph, we understand that this would have been a huge cultural event.

[18:29] So the event that Jesus is attending to is a significant event for his family. The fact that he's actually going as a part of his ministry and he's going to partake in this wedding.

[18:43] So it was a big deal. The fact of the matter is that Jesus obviously made a point of being there. And we know the story. The party was so big they ran out of wine, right?

[18:56] They noted that, you know, we could speculate that the reason is because there's a whole lot of people following Jesus now. So a huge wedding turned into a bigger wedding.

[19:06] More wine needed. And Mary asks Jesus, hey, can you make more wine? Now Jesus is going to say something here.

[19:18] And as a pastor and friend to you men, please do not use this type of verbiage with your wife or mothers, okay? Woman, what does this have to do with me?

[19:31] My hour has not yet come. Now, okay, it's interesting because in our vernacular, which woman here would not be insulted if their husband was going around calling them woman all the time?

[19:43] No, nobody? No hands up? You guys are all right with that? Right? No, but in the Jewish vernacular, Jesus is actually doing something here.

[19:55] Previous to that, he had lived under the authority of his mother Mary. He did what he was told, right? Remember, going back to the age of 12, he wanted to be a part of his father's business.

[20:07] He's like chomping at the bit for like 20 years just waiting to be about his father's business, and he's waiting, waiting for the herald to come.

[20:17] The herald's not here. And instead of using mother, woman actually would have been seen as another term of endearment, but he's not under her anymore.

[20:29] There's a switch in the relationship that's going on. All right, I was your son, I was taking care of you, but I'm now going to be doing something else now.

[20:41] So there's this very distinct event that's happened here. So obviously she asked him to do it, he says no, but he says my hour has not yet come, but he does the miracle, and somewhere between, my hour has not yet come, the spirit had communicated to Jesus, yes, the time had come.

[21:01] And he does this, and I want you to notice in verse 11, he's not doing this to augment his family name at the wedding, he's not doing this as a party favor or a trick or to please the guests, scripture tells us specifically what was the reason it says, this, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana and Galilee and manifested his glory and his disciples believed in him.

[21:35] So his first disciples, they're coming, they're hoping that John is right, right? John the Baptist, the guy they're following, they believe is the herald, they believe the one who's coming before, has now told them that Jesus, this is the Messiah, this is the Messiah, you need to follow him, and they're kind of go with him, right?

[21:53] They first ask him, hey, where are you staying? You know, we'll go check out, you know, what church you're at, what corner of the street are you working? We'll go hear you. So they kind of go and you know what, he's going to a wedding, who doesn't like a Jewish wedding?

[22:05] We're going to go too. They're going to go to this wedding and now Jesus does this miracle. And now it simply says, and his disciples believed in him.

[22:18] You see, what we will see throughout the ministry of Jesus is a patient walking alongside of those who've heard the call of Jesus, want to believe, and Jesus continually engaging in their belief.

[22:37] Do you know what I mean? This isn't the first time we're going to be here with these disciples. This is the very first time. And as we know the story of Jesus Christ, Jesus needs to bring their faith along more and more because eventually they're the ones to be given the task to deliver the gospel to the rest of the world.

[23:03] So here's his first teaching moment. And I think for the matter, if we're honest with ourselves, sometimes it's a struggle to believe.

[23:17] there are moments in our life where it's a struggle to have faith. We might have believed it six months ago, six years, 12 years, we can look back in an instant, man, I was involved in college ministry, really engaged at some other point in my life, I was really engaged in ministry, but somewhere, somehow, belief kind of became a struggle.

[23:44] there's a whole bunch of statistics that tell us why. Sometimes it's because other people have given us other things that have caused us not to believe as much.

[23:56] Sometimes people have been hurt by pastors, they've been hurt by fellow saints. But what I want you to see is that as we work through the gospels together, we're going to meet an incredibly tender-hearted, patient, merciful Savior who works with us to help us believe.

[24:17] Even in the face of great miracles, there's oftentimes doubt. Sadly, there are moments in a believer's life where we struggle in our own faith, and when we're almost too afraid to go to other believers.

[24:36] You ever been there? Kind of struggling with your faith? You go to someone you trust, and there's kind of a rejection that occurs. For the most part, we're trying to obey Jesus, but we struggle with our past, we struggle with our sin, we struggle with forgiving others who've sinned against us.

[24:57] Sometimes it's a difficult family, sometimes it's the world, sometimes it's our own vices. But I want to assure you of something.

[25:12] That in Jesus Christ, we have a perfect mediator. And because he's a perfect mediator, and because he lives this earth for 33 years, he knows us.

[25:26] He works with our mistrust. He works with our brokenness. He works with those things that we don't always remember. and if I can encourage you with something is most people that I find that are struggling in their faith or their walk with Christ, spend far too much time struggling with themselves, their ability to believe, their strength to believe, their actions of faith, and what they do not do is put their eyes on Jesus Christ.

[26:05] Because as you know, or maybe you don't know this, your salvation is not based on the strength of your faith. Do you know that? Whether you have little faith or big faith, it matters not.

[26:20] What matters is where that little faith or that big faith is placed. And if it is placed on the person of Jesus Christ, it's saving faith.

[26:32] Amen? Even in your struggles, even in your doubts, it does not discount you from the faith. But it's something that you need to pray to Jesus and say, God, I need you to work with me in this.

[26:48] And over this time, as we're going to see more and more of Jesus, I want to take note of these special moments that these guys knew scripture, they knew John the Baptist, they heard the testimony of great godly men, of the prophet, that this is Jesus, they still follow, then they still have doubts.

[27:08] And we're going to see that. Even after Jesus feeds 6,000, hey, where are we going to get dinner tomorrow? Right? Hey, Jesus, we're in the storm, we're going to die. Right?

[27:18] It's just over and over and over, and guess what? To make you effective, I really believe God wants to take you through those things of life to, to strengthen your faith.

[27:32] So that's the first person that we're going to encounter in the gospels. The person who believes, but there's going to be doubt, there's going to be struggle, there's going to be more focus on self than on Jesus.

[27:47] But I pray through this sermon series, you're going to see so much more of Jesus that you're going to fade into the background. And you're going to come to an endearing, deeper love of him.

[27:58] So that's the first person we're going to encounter. The second person that we're going to encounter in this ministry of Jesus Christ is the defiant. The defiant.

[28:11] Let's take a look at John 2.13. And I want to tell you that this is a very important text that describes the overall general ministry of Jesus Christ.

[28:23] So I'm going to spend a little bit of time on, because I want you to understand it and I want you to appreciate it. So let's take a look at verse 13 of John 2. It says, the Passover of the Jews was at hand.

[28:42] Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons and the money changers sitting there. Making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple with the sheep and the oxen.

[28:59] And he poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, take these things away. Do not make my father's house a house of trade.

[29:13] His disciples remembered that it was written, zeal for your house will consume me. Remember, this is the temple. In that time of Judaism, that is where you went to meet God.

[29:28] God's presence. Verse 18, so the Jews said to him, what sign do you show us for doing these things?

[29:40] Jesus answered them, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. The Jews then said, so when John talks about the Jews, he's not just talking about the regular Jewish populace.

[29:50] What he's referring to is the religious rulers of the day. Prominent people who are the ones supposed to represent God. And we're going to talk a little bit about them. They're going to be primarily the Pharisees and they're going to be Sadducees.

[30:04] So the Jews said to him, what sign do you show us for doing these things? Jesus answered them, destroy this temple in three days, I will raise it up. The Jews then said, it has taken 46 years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?

[30:21] For he was speaking about the temple of his body. 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.

[30:32] Again, even in relaying this story, it's meant for his call, right? The disciples, even gives them greater faith in what Jesus says. Verse 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.

[30:53] But Jesus, on his part, did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people, and he needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.

[31:08] All right, there's three things I want us to take note about. Actually, four. The first thing is, in modern criticism, there is some debate that Jesus Christ only turned the tables of the money changers once in his ministry.

[31:25] Matthew, Mark, and Luke only mention it at the end of his ministry. But there is a wonderful purpose why John, going back, and he's written this gospel decades of later, after the other gospels is written, and it's going to tell us an important reason.

[31:40] I hope as we get into this, you're going to be blown away by how great it figures into the absolute wisdom of Jesus Christ. But the text is clear that Jesus Christ overturned the tables at the very beginning of his ministry and at the very end of his ministry.

[31:57] All right, you with me on that one? So if anybody says there's only one, no, there was two table turnings that happened and I'm going to tell you the significance of this. So there's three things I needed to be mindful of. First, when I made mention of the Jews, the Pharisees and Sadducees, I want you to get a clear understanding of who these religious men are.

[32:16] Pharisees were religious leaders that taught at the synagogue. So after Israel had been destroyed by Babylon, they went, they took off, they were held captive by the foreign leaders and what they did, and it's not mentioned anywhere in the Old Testament how to do this, but they made this rule that if there was ten men in an area, they would create a center of learning.

[32:44] Kind of like a modern day church. They would say, all right, we're going to get, they'd have the Torah or one of the scrolls and they would read from it and it became kind of their church. So if there was ten men, they could form these synagogues.

[32:56] And some of these men who became teachers and knowers of the scrolls were these men called the Pharisees. Pharisees would have been righteous living people. As we go through, they kind of get a bad rap, but I believe they were honest, sincere men trying to live as right as they could before the Lord.

[33:15] A little bit on the legalist side, but that's who they are. And so they're spread amongst the populace of Israel. And they're known as common people, they were lawyers, but the people knew who they were.

[33:29] You knew who the Pharisees were. We estimate that there was close to 6,000 Pharisees. Now the Sadducees is another form and you can say they're almost like two political parties.

[33:42] These guys, Pharisees, functioned within the people. They knew the people, the people knew them. The Sadducees operated out of the temple. They were supposed to be the priests.

[33:53] These were the people that were supposed to represent God's people before the Lord. They were supposed to be the ultimate mediators. So you have these two groups. The Sadducees did not believe in the entire Bible.

[34:06] Pharisees did. All the Old Testament laws, even the oral laws, the Pharisees followed. These guys only believed that the first five books were strictly theirs.

[34:17] Now what happened, and remember I told you a couple of weeks ago, remember the whole Maccabean revolt, the Jewish revolt that led to 100 years of free reign in Israel just before the Romans took over?

[34:31] These people became, they were a political party, and the head of that party would have been the high priest, and he became kind of the de facto king. All right?

[34:42] So, these are the guys that kind of have sway over the way things politically work in Israel.

[34:53] And it's all centered around the temple because we have a whole Jewish people of the same faith whose faith is all centered around the temple.

[35:03] Okay? So, there was four festivals that you had to always attend. So, when you would go to these festivals, we're going to learn this is how the priests made money.

[35:15] By the people coming to Jerusalem celebrating these festivals were opportunities to make money. So, you have these two groups. One, it's within the people of Israel.

[35:27] This group, they're only in Jerusalem, they're only at the temple, and this is their power base. All right? So, that's the first thing we need to be mindful of, the whole Jewish system.

[35:43] Now, the other thing we need to understand is what was the relationship to Rome at the time. When Rome took over a nation like Israel, they would place their leader in power.

[35:56] and there's only two responsibilities that he had. One, collect the taxes, and two, keep the peace. All right? So, this guy, who's the governor, would go to any measure, if he wanted to keep his position, he had to keep taking taxes, and he had to continue keeping the peace.

[36:21] Now, it's now Passover. historians believe that Jerusalem probably had close to half a million to 600,000 people living in Jerusalem at that time.

[36:35] Pretty incredible, right? But at the Passover, every Jew from around would come, and the population would swell to two million people.

[36:47] Okay? You're a Roman soldier. Okay? You're in Jerusalem, Jerusalem, and all these Jews are coming, and they're celebrating Passover.

[36:58] What does Passover represent? When God freed his people from the Egyptians, right? So, who's the foreign occupier now? Rome. So, you've got now two million people that you know hate you.

[37:12] Like, there's no day off for a Roman soldier during the Passover, right? Hey, I'm going on that family vacation out to Perea. Can I take it? No. All hands on deck.

[37:22] So, you would have had a guard in place. Would have been tense. They would deal with insurrection quickly and very firmly.

[37:33] If they needed to put someone to death, they would. And it's important to remember, only Rome has the power to put someone to death. You with me? Only Rome. Religious rulers can't do it.

[37:44] Pharisees don't have that power. Sadducees don't have that power. But Rome has that power. And remember we've talked about out of all the Roman Empire, the place where the most insurrections happen is Israel.

[38:03] Time over time over time, there are hard people to rule and for good reason. Now, in order to keep the peace, the Rome works with the high priest at the temple.

[38:17] You keep him happy, he keeps you happy. You scratch my back, I'll scratch your back. So that relationship becomes a very give in, take situation.

[38:31] Alright? So there's this relationship and Israel has what's known as a Sanhedrin. It's 70 individuals with the high priest over top of them and it's made up of Pharisees, Sadducees, and prominent people of Israel.

[38:45] And they're kind of like the judges and they're the ones who make Israel work. The Romans don't care if Israel works. They just care if they're getting their taxes. Okay? So that's the situation that's going on right now.

[39:00] So I need you to understand the difference between Pharisees, Sadducees. I want you to understand the context of Rome being in Jerusalem. And now I want to share with you how corrupt the Sadducees were.

[39:15] All right? So there was a couple of stories that I want to read to you that I learned what they would do. One of their biggest scams that's recorded by historians is you're on the Passover supposed to bring a sacrifice, right?

[39:33] Let's say you raise this lamb, it's a perfectly unblemished lamb, you're taking it, you're going to offer this as a sacrifice for the Passover, you show up. And anytime you bring a sacrifice to the temple, a priest has to go over the sacrifice.

[39:48] He's got to make sure that this is an unblemished, legit sacrifice. You bring it, you raise it, you take it up, the priest goes, ah man, look at this.

[40:00] The claw in this hoof over here is a little bit crooked, it's blemished, sorry man. You can't use it as a sacrifice. But I'll tell you what, 50 gold pieces I'll sell you one of mine.

[40:12] Because we have a whole herd of sheep just for this thing. So what they do is they take your sheep and will sell you another sheep. And what they would do with that sheep they took you, guess what?

[40:23] They sold to the next family who was coming behind you. You with me on that? So they would take total things, a couple things they were only supposed to charge in silver coins, but priests would swap it over for gold coins.

[40:36] It was only supposed to be six coins for something, they would change it to six gold. Take advantage. If you bought things outside of Jerusalem it would have cost you six silver pieces.

[40:48] However, if you were in the temple they would charge 75 silver pieces. So there's this whole machinery that's going on in God's temple to make the priests money.

[41:01] You with me on this? This is the Sadducees. This is how they make money. So they've got all these scams and there's historians talk about the scams.

[41:13] And they're doing this and there's actually some quite interesting stories in Jewish history about how they overcame them. But this is going on in God's house. So when Jesus shows up, he's got every reason to clean house, right?

[41:31] This is a complete abomination that these people have been engorging themselves on God's faithful people who are coming in good conscience, wanting to give their sacrifices to God.

[41:45] And these supposed holy men are taking it from them, abusing it, and cheating more money for themselves.

[41:56] So we have Sadducees, Pharisees, Sadducees in the temple. Rome allows this to go on. Right? They don't care.

[42:08] As long as the priest does keep the peace, they don't care. And the third thing, it is a corrupt temple system.

[42:22] So when Jesus, and here's a question I have for you, and Jesus is actually doing something incredibly strategic. When he goes in and throws over those tables, who's happy about that?

[42:39] Pharisees. The Pharisees are actually quite happy that Jesus is throwing up this whole Sadducee system. Not only are they competitors on the political front, but a lot of these Pharisees are good men.

[42:56] They want to do right what's God. They know what's happening. They've got no power to change it, because if they show unrest, who's got the ear of Rome? If you remember, Herod's son, Archelaus, Pharisees got out of line, 3,000 of them killed.

[43:13] Okay? So there's this incredible tension that's existing in Israel. So Jesus' first line, and this is going to play out perfectly, because when he throws off those tables, he's automatically made enemies of the Sadducees.

[43:32] Guess who we don't hear about for pretty much all of Jesus' ministry? Sadducees. Jesus spends all his time in the north. He doesn't even bother except for the festivals going down to Jerusalem.

[43:45] And we're going to fast forward a bit. This is where it all makes sense. Remember when Jesus Christ comes and throws the tables a second time? Sadducees are upset again, but guess who also hates Jesus by this time?

[44:00] Pharisees. So all of a sudden, Pharisees Sadducees, hey, we both hate this guy. How do we get rid of him? Let's form together, go to Rome, and that's what happens.

[44:12] Because not one party could get Rome to do what they wanted. They needed both the political power and the people. You following me on this? So Jesus at this moment in time is being incredibly strategic by dividing these two people.

[44:28] The Pharisees don't hate Jesus at this time. In fact, the passage that Dave wrote preceding that, remember Nicodemus? We're going to get into this. The Pharisees actually are very interested in Jesus.

[44:41] In John chapter three, we're going to learn next week, it's a relationship by a guy who was a prominent Pharisee. And we're going to see some of these Pharisees really want to believe. They're really called.

[44:53] And Jesus spends time with them, showing them eventually what is the gospel and what it is. So, when Jesus is throwing over those temples, the point to be made is he's made one group of friends and he's made one group of enemies.

[45:11] Not to mention protecting the Lord's honor. Let me ask you a question. How does Jesus deal with those that are defiant?

[45:27] By defiant, I mean those who know the truth, willingly disobey it, and they use their position to abuse the people of God.

[45:43] We see here that he shows no mercy. He throws over their tables, their way of lives. He doesn't explain what he's doing.

[45:54] He just does it. See, there's a lot of people who use God or their spirituality and their position to abuse the weak and the poor.

[46:08] Take advantage of them. Sometimes it's for personal accolades, sometimes it's for gold. We see it all the time on TV, fake healers, and a whole bunch of other scams that are being operated.

[46:27] They're those that know the truth, but use the truth to take it advantage over other people. Let me ask you a question.

[46:40] Are you one of those people? Now, you might say, whoa, whoa, I'm not making money. on this thing. But do you come here just to earn the appease and applaud of your family?

[46:52] Do you come here just to keep your mom and dad thinking that you're a really good Christian boy or girl? Do you come here because you think you're going to earn a measure of glory from God?

[47:06] Do you come here because you think you're going to earn a measure of glory from God? God? Do you come here? There's a lot of people who are very far from God who know a lot about God.

[47:19] There's a lot of people who put their faith in their family name. They put their faith in their family heritage. They put their faith in the friends that they have, the knowledge of the Bible that they know.

[47:33] if this is true my friends, if you do these things, you live in a very uneasy place. You are presuming upon Jesus' love and grace when he demands your life.

[47:54] You don't want his life, but you'll presume on it. You'll sin knowing that I just need to ask for forgiveness that night. Let me live the way I want to live.

[48:09] So maybe you are a defiant. How do you get right with God? The first thing to understand about getting right is to understand where you are.

[48:23] Nobody takes out a map, sees a destination, but doesn't see the beginning, right? We all use Google Maps, right? You bring it up, it just puts a picture of Squamish.

[48:33] That doesn't help me to get somewhere in Vancouver. I actually have to plug in the address, and the phone knows where I'm beginning. For some of you ancient mortals, remember those big maps we used to use, and we'd have to get a chart?

[48:49] We know that not any map will do, right? I want to go to Dallas, Texas, I don't use a map of Austria. You got to find the right map. And a big thing about getting right with God is first understanding where you are.

[49:08] When Jesus threw over those tables, that was a clear message. They weren't on God's side, amen? You are far from God, my friends.

[49:19] Jesus died for those people as well. But the reality is, my friends, God sometimes works to throw over tables in our lives to let us know where we are.

[49:34] We might claim Christianity, we might claim a faith, we might claim to believe, but there's circumstances and events that continue to happen in our life to the point where the only person to blame is God.

[49:51] most often we will try to curse God and die as Job's counselors told him to do, his wife.

[50:04] But the right way is to understand that man, maybe I am far from God. Maybe God is truly unpleased and displeased with my life.

[50:20] And that's a humbling place to be. But it's a great place to be because you know where you are on the map. You know where to go now, right?

[50:33] If I can say I'm a mess here, God, I want to be put together, lead me. And that's the first thing we need to do. How is your time with the Lord?

[50:44] How is your time in the worship? what is your personal time of worship like? If it's non-existent, you probably need a table thrown over in your life.

[51:02] My prayer for you is that we simply begin with a confession of repentance and ask God to renew our hearts. Give me a renewed first love.

[51:14] Give me a new understanding. The Bible is quite clear that you and I have been created for good works. You know that? We've been created for good works to bring him glory. Who doesn't want to be doing the true work of God?

[51:34] You see, to grow in love for Christ means you need to feed your heart spiritual meals. you need to feast on his word.

[51:47] You need to feast and thirst for Jesus Christ. Amen. And if that's not there, maybe it's time to check out my faith.

[52:00] Maybe my parents' faith wasn't enough. Maybe because I claimed to believe her in high school isn't enough. See, I can assure you that God wants to have a very genuine real relationship with you.

[52:17] Ephesians tells us quite clearly that the relationship is almost a father and child relationship. It is an intimate relationship.

[52:28] It's not a relationship based on our works. It's not a relationship on what I can do or how gifted I am. It's solely based on God's great love for us.

[52:42] You see, the Jesus we meet on these pages of Scripture is a kind, soft, patient man.

[52:56] But he's holy. He's just. And there is a wrath that is to come. As we see what the disciples he seems to be patient over and over with unbelief.

[53:15] But even with the defiant, he's just as patient. But he just keeps overturning your tables till you get right with him. My hope is that if you are genuinely his, he will upset your table.

[53:33] He will overthrow aspects of your life. Perhaps it's financial, relational, personal health. God is not limited by the means he will use.

[53:45] Perhaps he's already done so in order to get your attention. And now as you're trying to set up that table again, you need to pause and do a heart check.

[53:57] my friends, the truth of the matter is that you can get your table fixed in the right way, in the right here, right now with him.

[54:11] Let me pray for you. Dear Lord, Heavenly Father, just as we come to this text, we are gripped by a God who knows all seas hall. He is a wise king.

[54:24] He knows who the usurpers are. He knows who the liars are, the cheats in the temple, those who play church. He also calls those who want to believe, who want to be made right with you.

[54:40] And he continues to give those calls despite our brokenness, our history, our past sins, our foolishness. And he continues to build a faith that is saving faith in us.

[54:54] Father, I'm amazed just as we go through, we're going to learn about the curious. We're going to learn about the blind. We're going to learn about those that seem so far from you, they don't even think about you, but yet you still call to them.

[55:12] God, I pray we would be continually moved by this God who moves us through these pages of scriptures and we can see his strategies, his wisdom, understanding of us to call us to him.

[55:30] The man who three and a half years from this time in the Bible will go to the cross, suffer the death that was made for us and give us the life that we were meant to live.

[55:42] Father, only you can redeem. Let us just look at the tables that are overturned in our life and say, God, please fix this.

[55:54] Please make this right. Please give me a new heart. So, Father, as we come to this table, let us sing this song to remind ourselves of this complete and perfect work that you have done and that we are reading about the beginning in the Gospels.

[56:19]  In your name, Amen.