2022 H2O Series: Living Water
Sermon 2: Polluted
John 2:13-21 - Victory Fellowship
January 23, 2022 – Rev. Roderick Grabski
Healing Service
Bulletin insert from last weeks message
(Mexico Water – Colorado Water – Tahoe, Myrtle Beach Intercostal, Cuyahoga River 1969)
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1. Polluted
For some of us, church was not always what it was supposed to be. The church has hurt us, ignored us, or just seemed irrelevant to us. In John 2:13-21, Jesus went to the temple in Jerusalem and was less than pleased because it was not working the way it was supposed to. So He cleaned house and started over, because what was needed was a new beginning—one with Jesus at the center. And if we look closely, we can find more similarities between the temple and the church today than we might have thought.
What it Should Be
-The temple was supposed to be a place of prayer, a place where people were comforted and cared for.
-It could have been the first place people turned to in their hurt, the best place to provide for the sick, poor, and orphaned. It was supposed to be a symbol of the presence of God on Earth.
-The temple had traded its purpose: loving people, for power: controlling people.
What it’s Not
-Instead of loving people, the temple was a means of controlling people. People were forced to buy animals to sacrifice at raised prices and were made to go through certain steps mandated by Jewish Law to make sure they were clean, etc.
-When Jesus gets angry, He’s not angry at the temple itself, but with what it has become.
-The temple is still a good thing, and the Law is still a good thing, but it is supposed to help people, not manipulate them.
What it Can Be
-Jesus knew that the only way the temple could be what it was always supposed to be was with a new start—with him at the center.
In John 2:19, Jesus speaks of a temple that will be destroyed and rebuilt in three days, and verse 21 tells us that He was referring to Himself.
-The only way the temple (and the church) can get back to what it was always supposed to be is to start over and make Jesus the focal point of the rebuilding project.
-With Jesus at the center, the church can love, comfort, respect, and help people. If the church follows Jesus’ model, it will be what it was always supposed to be.
Have you been polluted by the church or someone acting in the name of Christianity? Have you been one to pollute the lives of others through well-intentioned, but misguided efforts?
Come to Jesus. The water’s fine.
COME FOR ANOINTING & PRAYER
SONG: In the House (David Crowder)
John 2:13-21 NLT
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.” 19 “All right,” Jesus replied. “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20 “What!” they exclaimed. “It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple, and you can rebuild it in three days?” 21 But when Jesus said “this temple,” he meant his own body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered he had said this, and they believed both the Scriptures and what Jesus had said.
