Audacious Love (Jn 2:13-22)

Benjamin Disraeli once said “Success is the child of audacity.” Today I am going to show that Jesus Christ succeeded by knowing the Way and not deviating from that Way. I am also going to show that Jesus is audacious but his heart is pure – and we are supposed to be like him. (During this preaching I saw a vision of Jesus whipping the the unrighteous out of our hearts). 

Audacity means: 1. Fearlessly, often recklessly daring; bold, adventurous, brave. 2. Unrestrained by convention or propriety; insolent. 3. Spirited and original.

Jesus would have equally upset many of today’s leadership to the ‘inth degree. He was so audacious that they killed him for daring to rock the boat they were paddling themselves in.

How dare he come into the temple and throw over tables and toss the money all over the floor. What kind of lunatic is this guy who brandishes a whip of cords to drive out traders. Heaven forbid this is not good order!

How absolutely outrageous can a devout church-goer be? Excommunicate him from the church. Ban him from ever speaking again in hallowed buildings. Better yet turn him over to the police as he claims to be, of all things, God.

Hard to believe someone so good could behave so wrong. Jesus offends the establishment. He shows up their self-righteousness for what it is. He has no honour for misused authority but instead proves their lack of it at every turn.

John establishes Jesus as the “Word of God” right from the get go. He is the light of the world that chases out the darkness. He’s the only one at any time to have seen God. Jesus is audacious! But Jesus has a pure heart.

John comes baptising with water and declares the Messiah’s arrival and calls Jesus the Lamb of God, the one who takes away the sin of the world. He’s the one who baptises not with water but a new thing; the Holy Spirit and fire.

He gathers up a few followers and symbolises the transition taking place turning ritual water into the best wedding wine. He starts saying there’s a new way now. What right does he have to start a movement that threatens every ritual thing we know and trust? Jesus is audacious!

This cleaning up the temple business is a huge metaphor. You see Jesus came to save the lost; saving them from the sinful nature of the heart that wreaked havoc inside their bodies.

We will find Jesus has power over disease and sickness, demons and deformities. God was breaking out of the hard stone temple into a warm loving being. Jesus has the power to change wicked and unloving hearts.

But here we’re seeing straight up, the radical, audacious temple warden at work. He sees what is in the heart of man so vividly that he cannot constrain himself to be like height-of-the-day religious leaders.

Jesus knows what’s right and wrong. He knows what evil looks like and is constrained to his purpose: to rid his homeland of evil once and for all. He sees the enemy lurking behind every mask and marionette.

He feels evil all around him and his righteousness cannot abide its tyranny. He does not look to them for inspiration but has his eyes and ears firmly on his Father in heaven. Oh yeah Jesus is audacious alright!

He is unrestrained by convention or propriety. He would be seen as insolent and the majority see that as undesirable. But he loves us so much that he seeks us out to be with him in heaven instead of hell. O yes, Jesus know about hell!

Jesus draws the analogy between the temple in Jerusalem and Himself as a temple of God. Where once people had to go to the temple for forgiveness and prayer, Jesus now shows that forgiveness is available everywhere.

To the Jews of the day this was a radical departure from the norm. The authorities were flummoxed and proud. The problem was the dependency on blood sacrifice animals to redeem them from sins of this profiteering.

At the time of the Passover thousands were coming to redeem themselves from unrighteousness of the previous year. The scene would probably be similar to the local livestock sale yards. Sellers were profiting on sins!

We have this picture of the multitude of people carrying the effects of evil and the life blood of righteous animals and birds cleanse them away. This was an abattoir of slaughtermen and butchers. Smoke of a great fire burned their fat.

From the time of his own sacrifice and resurrection his Father would be rid of this continual sinning and blood sacrifice. He took the truth of it out to the marketplace. He forgave sins and cast out devils. God was on the move.

Jesus said you cannot serve two masters: either you will love the one and not the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon. Jesus saw people serving their idol mammon and this meant their soul was destined for eternal pain.

His love was so audacious that it looked like he was trying to destroy their religion and its temple. They wanted to enjoy their lives; it’s no business of anyone else. Leave us alone in our individualistic personal temple.

People serve the love of riches, believing the strength of money will save them but it’s not so. Many have become rich and wretched; only finding meaninglessness in extravagance. Only Jesus Christ can save you.

As wise and wealthy as he was reputed to be Solomon is a lesson to us; he overindulged in every way and took in foreign gods. King Solomon’s kept hundreds of foreign wives and his annual income was 666 talents of gold.

Rev 13:18 John writes that the mark of the beast is 666. It is the mark of the worship of mammon. Rev 18 talks about all the merchandiser who suffer when the evil is overcome. Jesus knew this mark in the temple that day. 

Paul writes;

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God....because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” 1Cor 1:18 & 25

Only the Gospel of the shed blood of Christ can give us peace. Man is looking for his soul. There is a longing for God’s peace in the heart, which cannot be satisfied by any other means. Not drugs or alcohol, nor anything else.

Jesus is audacious. He calls the religious leaders to destroy “this temple,” he says, “and I will raise it up again in three days.” Religious leaders send him to the cross. Satan was at work, accuser of the brethren and destroyer of men.

In the beginning God spoke to Adam & Eve, “Did you eat of that tree I told you not too eat of?” Paul writes concerning the temple of the heart;

“Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” 1 Cor 3:16

Jesus is audacious!  They set him up to be killed just for setting things right. But, the gospel, the good news, is that in three days he rebuilt his temple again. He lives and because he lives we also can live in him.

People, don’t nibble both the fruit of Good and Evil. Don’t corrupt your love with other things. As a temple, be filled with only the love of the Holy One. Do not be confused with ideas other than Jesus – we are meant to be like him!