Title: New Temple Jesus/John 2:18-22
Contents New Temple Jesus/John 2:18-22
“Then the Jews answered and said to Jesus… ” (John 2:18-22)
Word: There is a dispute between Jesus and the Jews over the temple incident. The Jews ask for a sign, and Jesus continues to talk about the temple. The Jews seek the periphery, and Jesus speaks of the essence. After the Temple of Jerusalem was built by Solomon, it was destroyed and rebuilt repeatedly. Even at that time, Herod had been building the temple for 46 years to win the favor of the Jews. The Jews were so intoxicated with the majesty of the visible temple that they could not see the true form of the temple. The disciples were no exception. So the words of the Jews and Jesus do not make any sense at all.
As we can see from the temple events, Jesus is looking at people rather than buildings, and content rather than forms. The reason that John records this event in Jesus' early ministry is because it is an event that foreshadows the entire ministry of Jesus. The saying that the temple will be destroyed and raised again on the third day is foreshadowing the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. Verse 22 explains that the disciples also remembered and believed these words only after Jesus was resurrected. This is paired with verse 17, where the disciples remembered the temple event in the Word.
What we are telling you here is that Jesus is the new temple. The temple sacrifices that were repeatedly offered by sacrificing the blood of animals were destroyed, and our sins were atoned for at once through the blood of the cross. And by the resurrection of Jesus on the third day, it became a new eternal temple.
In the Gospel of John, from the beginning, there are many self-declarations about Jesus, “I am the light and the Word,” “I am the life,” and “I am the truth.” Chapter 2 also emphasizes that “I am the wine and the sin offering.” By turning water into wine and sending out cattle, sheep, and doves, Jesus became a living sacrifice and a living temple. Jesus became the new sacrifice and the temple, not the restoration of the old sacrifice or the old temple. He became a living sacrifice, a living temple, not a dead sacrifice and a dead temple of the Jews.
You are the church. I am the church. We are all church. The church is not a building, it is a people of God. True worship is that we become living sacrifices, and the church we become the church is the true church. The cross and resurrection of Jesus make this possible. Therefore, the true meaning of the temple events is the purification of people. It took a long time for even the disciples to understand the meaning.