ZEAL FOR YOUR HOUSE WILL CONSUME ME
JOHN 2:12-22

The three Passovers;
JOHN 6:4
4 Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand.

JOHN 11:55
55 Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves.

JOHN 13:1
1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

JOHN 18:28
28 Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the governor’s headquarters. It was early morning. They themselves did not enter the governor’s headquarters, so that they would not be defiled, but could eat the Passover.

JOHN 19:14
14 Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!”

In the Gospel of John, the Passover and its atoning significance dominates the entire ministry of the Christ.
A Christ who is not defined and understood entirely within the context of a sacrificial death for sinners is not the Christ of the Scriptures.

The Temple: a place of conflict;
JOHN 5:14
14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.”

JOHN 8:59
59 So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

JOHN 11:56
56 They were looking for Jesus and saying to one another as they stood in the temple, “What do you think? That he will not come to the feast at all?”

The need to sell animals;
DEUTERONOMY 14:22–25
22 “You shall tithe all the yield of your seed that comes from the field year by year. 23 And before the LORD your God, in the place that he will choose, to make his name dwell there, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, of your wine, and of your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and flock, that you may learn to fear the LORD your God always. 24 And if the way is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry the tithe, when the LORD your God blesses you, because the place is too far from you, which the LORD your God chooses, to set his name there, 25 then you shall turn it into money and bind up the money in your hand and go to the place that the LORD your God chooses…”

Symbolism was engrained into Jewish thinking;
JEREMIAH 19:10–14
10 “Then you shall break the flask in the sight of the men who go with you, 11 and shall say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts: So will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter’s vessel, so that it can never be mended. Men shall bury in Topheth because there will be no place else to bury. 12 Thus will I do to this place, declares the LORD, and to its inhabitants, making this city like Topheth. 13 The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah—all the houses on whose roofs offerings have been offered to all the host of heaven, and drink offerings have been poured out to other gods—shall be defiled like the place of Topheth.’ ” 14 Then Jeremiah came from Topheth, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy, and he stood in the court of the LORD’s house and said to all the people:

The corruption of worship;
ZECHARIAH 14:21
21 And every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holy to the LORD of hosts, so that all who sacrifice may come and take of them and boil the meat of the sacrifice in them. And there shall no longer be a trader in the house of the LORD of hosts on that day.

MALACHI 3:1, 3
1 “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts…3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the LORD.

Christ demonstrates no patience for worship that is corrupted or man-focused.
If Christ came flipping tables today, would He flip any of yours?

The Messiah’s burden;
PSALM 69:1–9
1 Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. 2 I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me. 3 I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God. 4 More in number than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without cause; mighty are those who would destroy me, those who attack me with lies. What I did not steal must I now restore? 5 O God, you know my folly; the wrongs I have done are not hidden from you. 6 Let not those who hope in you be put to shame through me, O Lord GOD of hosts; let not those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me, O God of Israel. 7 For it is for your sake that I have borne reproach, that dishonor has covered my face. 8 I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother’s sons. 9 For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.

Like Christ, we must zealously guard the worship of God in all aspects of our lives.
Are you zealous for God or just zealous for the rituals of God?

The Jewish preoccupation with signs;
1 CORINTHIANS 1:22
22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom…

The House of God = the people of God;
1 CORINTHIANS 3:16–17
16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

2 CORINTHIANS 6:16
16 What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

EPHESIANS 2:21–22
21 …in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

1 PETER 2:5
5 …you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

I will raise it up;
MATTHEW 1:24
24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife.

MATTHEW 3:9
9 And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.

MATTHEW 10:8
8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay.

MATTHEW 14:2
2 “…and he said to his servants, “This is John the Baptist. He has been raised from the dead; that is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.”

2 CORINTHIANS 4:16–18
16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

HEBREWS 11:10
10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.

Zealously guard the eternal focus.
In the economy of God, the physical is always intended to point to the spiritual, therefore, preoccupation with the physical is tantamount to elevating the sign above the reality to which the sign points.


10/26/2025