What Does Biblical Worship Look Like?

We’ve been studying the book of John, and today’s passage has Jesus behaving differently from how you might generally know him. He’s flipping tables, making a whip of cords, and rebuking a group of merchants as he drives a crowd of both people and animals out of the temple.

That’s not the sweet, passive Jesus that one side of our culture loves to stereotype. But, I want to be clear, this isn’t UFC fighter Jesus either. We have a tendency to want to see the things we value most in the people we follow, and that’s no different when it comes to Christ. If we can’t relate to the way he’s pictured, then we assume he’s not worth following.

But as John highlighted in the first chapter, Jesus is both fully God and fully man. And that means he was a complete man. You can’t pigeon-hole him into your favorite attributes and you can’t define the motivations for his actions. We can’t just let the Scriptures tell us what Jesus did and then rely on our own intuition for why he did it. That just creates a God, over time, who’s made in your image instead of the other way around.

Every Sunday morning at church, you’ll see me with a cup of coffee in my hand. That’s what I do, and it’s easy to jump to conclusions why: maybe our 1 year old and our 3 year old didn’t sleep well, and I’m just tired. Maybe I feel fine but want a little energy boost before I preach. Maybe I just like coffee (that part’s true)—but none of those things are the real reason why I have a cup at the start of the service every week.

I’ve already had a cup of coffee before I come here. I don’t need any more caffeine. If I’m honest, the reason’s much more ridiculous than that: I’m a vibey guy, and I love the feeling of having a cup of coffee surrounded by my church family. It feels warm and cozy. I’m also a guy that likes reading next to a fake fireplace with Christmas music on, so that’s all just kinda my thing.

You probably wouldn’t have figured that out just watching me drink coffee, and we shouldn’t just trust our own presuppositions when we read about Jesus to think that we can define his personality and motivations better than he has in his Word.

John 1:1 defined Jesus as the Word of God, and it’s in his Word that we learn both the what and the why behind who he is and what he does. The Bible’s useful for giving us insight into the heart of God, and when we approach it with our why questions—whether that be why Jesus chased people with a whip in John 2 or why God allows people to experience suffering or anything else—when we look to Scripture for our why, then we’ll find motivations that teach us more about the person of Jesus, which will ultimately lead us to better follow Jesus.

And Jesus tells us why he’s flipping tables when he rebukes the people selling pigeons in verse 16. He says, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade”, referring to the temple. And what was the temple used for? Worshiping God.

We see Jesus do some strange things and say some strange things in verses 12-22, but all of it is focused on the topic of worship. What Jesus saw happening in the temple was in conflict with the purpose of the temple. Even though the people thought this was helping their worship—and we’ll get to that more in a minute—even though they thought it was helping, it was actually distracting the people from what it truly means to worship.

And so, that’s our question for today: What does it mean to worship God? Is it just how we sing, or how we act, or something else? What does pure worship look like? But before we really dive into our text this morning, let’s make sure we understand the priority of worship within the Christian faith.

One of the great debates within our family is about chicken: Raising Canes or Chick-fil-A? I’m all for Canes, and Macie’s not a fan. She’s in love with Chick-fil-A, and I think it’s boring. When she does go with me to Canes, she’ll get the three finger combo with a unique substitute: honey mustard instead of Canes sauce.

Did you even though they did that?! It’s not like they advertise that they make honey mustard. Why would they? Of course Macie doesn’t like Canes! Literally everything they make is designed to be drenched in that sauce. The Canes sauce is why you go!

And the same is true for worshiping God. It’s why we’re here. If we were made by God and aren’t seeking to enjoy God by being satisfied in God and thankful to God, then everything else loses it’s “connective tissue”—its deeper purpose—it’s like we’re given life and then live disconnected from the source of life.

Throughout Scripture, worship is presented as both our foundation and the culmination. Romans 12 talks about worshiping God with our bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, which Paul calls our “spiritual worship”, meaning every part of what we do can and should worship God. In John 4, just a couple chapters from where we are right now, Jesus is going to have a lengthy conversation on worship with a Samaritan woman, and he tells her that real worship happens both in Spirit and in truth, meaning it engages all we are, and it’s based on what we know about God. It’s focused on him.

Finally, we can fast forward to the book of Revelation, and the picture of the new heavens and the new earth is one of worship. It’s the culmination of our creation and our redemption. Listen to the picture that’s given in the last book of the Bible, Revelation 5:11-12:

Revelation 5:11–12 ESV

¹¹ Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, ¹² saying with a loud voice,

“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain,

to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might

and honor and glory and blessing!”

We were made to worship God. Now, if that idea confuses you, if it feels like that makes the God of the Bible narcissistic, I think that’s an important and fair concern to think through.

If I told you that, starting today, Restoration Community Church was going to be renamed “Rob Community Church”, what would your reaction be? You’d be shocked, concerned, possibly upset. Most likely, you wouldn’t stick around through the end of this sermon, unless you just wanted to confront me about it afterwards. And you definitely wouldn’t keep attending the church.

Why is that? Because I don’t deserve it! This church can’t be about me. You’re not here for Rob. Even my wife isn’t here for Rob! I’m not worth being the center of attention for a group of worshipers. None of us are.

And I think we can subconsciously apply that logic to God. “How dare he create the world and then demand that world make their lives revolve around him?” But that’s the problem: our lives are going to revolve around something. We experience that. God knows that. And he knows there’s nothing better in the entire universe than the all righteous, all powerful, all loving creator God of the universe.

I know my 3-year old son going potty right before he gets in bed is the best thing he can do before he goes to bed. So, even though he might want to do something else, I tell him that’s what needs to happen.

If there’s nothing greater than God, and we’re going to make our lives about something, then the most loving thing that God can do is to command us to make our lives about him. We were made to worship. But what does pure worship look like? In our passage this morning, we see three themes of real worship: It’s God exclusive, justice driven, and Christ focused. Let’s re-read verses 12-17.

John 2:12–17 ESV

¹² After this he went down to Capernaum, with his mother and his brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days.

¹³ The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁴ In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. ¹⁵ And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. ¹⁶ And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” ¹⁷ His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

Just like we’ve seen throughout the past several sections, John keeps the timeline tight here. Jesus was just at a wedding in Cana turning water into wine—as you do at weddings—and then verse 12 says he leaves from there to head to a place called Capernaum, which would have been about 16 miles away. He was there with his disciples as well as his mother and his brothers. Yep, according to Mark 6:3, Jesus had at least two sisters and four brothers.

From there, they head to Jerusalem for Passover, which was the feast that celebrated when God rescued his people from slavery in Egypt. He passed over the Israelites who had the blood of a lamb on their doorposts and spared them while bringing judgment to the firstborn throughout Egypt.

Passover was a big deal, and it brought brought Jews together from around the ancient world. Scholars estimate the population of Jerusalem around this time was anywhere between 25,000-50,000 people. But during Passover, it would swell from anywhere between 120,000-180,000 people.

And that’s why there were people selling animals and exchanging money in the temple. Jews would take the pilgrimage to Jerusalem for Passover and would need to offer sacrifices. But in a city that congested, it was hard to bring animals for the trip and then to find a place to keep them when you got there. As a convenience, they started selling animals for sacrifice, so that travelers could just buy them when they got to the city.

Same thing with the money-changers. People came from around the ancient world with different currencies, and they had the opportunity to exchange their money in order to purchase those animals. At one point, all of this was happening further away, and the animals were being sold closer to the Mount of Olives, but now they had moved inside the temple, most likely into the outer court known as the Court of the Gentiles.

Jesus sees what’s happening, he makes himself a whip, and he drives them all out. If this story’s familiar to you, we see something similar in the other three gospel accounts. I say similar, because I don’t think they’re the same event. In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus drives merchants out of the temple toward the end of his ministry. Here, he does it at the beginning. I don’t think John moved it earlier in his writing for emphasis because he’s been precise with the timeline for when it happens.

In the other accounts, the event leads to the religious leaders starting to plot how they can kill Jesus. That wouldn’t be the case if it was this same event at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry because he’s still going to teach and reach the masses for another two and a half or more years before he’s arrested. Finally, each of the other accounts attribute a particular statement from Jesus that John doesn’t record him saying here. It really seems like Jesus drove merchants out of the temple more than once.

But the question we’re asking this morning is “Why?” And for that, we look once again to the reason Jesus gives in verse 16: “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” Jesus’ problem wasn’t that the merchants were taking advantage of people (we don’t see any claim about that here); it wasn’t about what they were doing. It was where they were doing it.

The temple was built for God’s presence to dwell with his people. People came there to worship, and in the Court of the Gentiles where they would have been changing money and selling these animals, there would have been people in the exact same place actively trying to pray and worship. But instead of reverence and adoration and focus on God, there were the loud sounds of animals and sales. Jesus is making a statement that the place we worship God must be all about God.

You go into a Taco Bell and ask for a pedicure, people are going to look at you funny. That’s not why Taco Bell exists, and that’s not why you should go there.

Jesus’ rebuke is rooted in the fact that they were in “[his] Father’s house”. And the temple isn’t for our convenience; it’s for God’s worship. Now, two important things to clarify if we’re going to apply this to our lives today. First, the Old Testament temple has not been replaced by the New Testament church building—or theatre with a disco ball. The New Testament does talk about a temple where God’s presence dwells today, but it’s not out there. It’s in here. 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 tells us:

1 Corinthians 3:16–17 ESV

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.

The beauty of the gospel is that God drew near to us in order to redeem us so that he could dwell in us. If you’ve repented of your sin against God and trusted in the person and work of Jesus to make you right with God, then you are God’s temple. You fill that function.

If that sounds strange to you, think about in terms of both nature and need. God’s nature is that he’s so transcendent that, as Charles Spurgeon said, “the heaven of heavens cannot contain him.” And yet, he’s simultaneously so intimate that he dwells in human hearts.

And that speaks to our need: we need a God who’s big enough to be able to help us and near enough in his love that he wants to. If God can change our heart and dwell within us, then there is no one too far gone to be saved and no one saved who will ever be lost. He changes us, he dwells within us, and he keeps us.

But secondly, if you are God’s temple, if the presence of God dwells in you through his Holy Spirit, then what Jesus told the merchants and money changes in verse 16 applies to your own life: “do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” Don’t make your life focused on anything else other than living with, living for, and worshiping the God who dwells within you.

Now, that doesn’t mean you don’t have other interests. It doesn’t mean you don’t care about other things. It doesn’t mean you don’t have goals or dreams. But, if the temple of God exists exclusively to worship God, then a good diagnostic for every part of a Christian’s life is to ask the question, “How can I do this to the glory of God?” It’s not removing things from your life; it’s seeing everything in light of the main thing in your life.

But Jesus’ actions in clearing the temple don’t just show us how worship is exclusively about God; real worship is also driven by a commitment to justice. Think about Jesus here in the temple. He sees something wrong in a place reserved for God’s worship, and so he both did something about it and spoke against it. His desire to see God glorified led him to take action when he saw things competing for God’s worship. Just look at the quote from Psalm 69 that the disciples remembered in verse 17:

John 2:17 ESV

“Zeal for your house will consume me.”

We often think of justice in terms of our court system. We want to see the murderer “brought to justice” and punished for his crime. We want to see the government held accountable and laws enforced that protect and provide for the people. We want to see wrong things made right.

And I would say God defines justice the same way, but with one caveat. Where do we actually get our understanding of what is “right”? In the Christian faith, God is the source of what is right. He’s literally referred to as all-righteous. Because he’s perfect in who he is, we can have a steady sense of morality and desire for justice that’s rooted in a God who never changes.

Our world’s desire for justice is actually an apologetic pointing us to our righteous and just creator. We know things in the world aren’t the way they should be, and only through the righteous God who made us can we be made right with him again—both personally and in all of creation.

But we won’t worship what we don’t value. I think Nascar drivers have a lot of skill, but that sport’s not getting any of my time. I don’t enjoy it.

Jesus’ meets the merchants in the temple and sees that their affections are divided. They might be there in the name of worship, but they aren’t there worshiping God alone. I wonder how often that’s how we show up to times of prayer or Bible study or the Sunday service or when we go to work or play with our kids or have a conversation with our neighbors?

If your life was like a pool area on a hot summer day, what would glorifying God be in that picture: would it be the pool itself—the main reason you’re there, the thing you enjoy the most spending time in?

Or maybe glorifying God is like the diving board—the thing you start with, but you hope that doing it actually gets you into the main part where you want to be (like you’re living for him mainly because you hope he’s going to reward you in return).

Or maybe glorifying God in your life is like the pool furniture—it’s around, and you can notice it, but it wouldn’t change your experience in life much if some of it wasn’t there.

The desires of the merchants in the temple were divided. But Jesus, on the other hand, was filled with zeal for his Father’s house, so he did something about it. Removing the distractions of other things that would take away from the focus on the main thing was an act of justice from Jesus.

Where might worshiping God in your life drive you to pursue justice in your life? Where might seeking to glorify him in all things lead you to take an active role in seeing wrong things made right, whether that be in your own heart, in your family, or wherever you live, learn, work, and play?

We see Jesus motivated by justice in the temple here, but we also know that his pursuit of justice for the glory of God would extend far beyond driving out the merchants, all the way to picking up his cross. Ultimately, that’s the true meaning we get behind the statement, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” It would take all of Jesus for what is wrong in us to be made right. Let’s keep reading with verses 18-22.

John 2:18–22 ESV

¹⁸ So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” ¹⁹ Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” ²⁰ The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” ²¹ But he was speaking about the temple of his body. ²² 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.

Naturally, if you make a whip and drive people out of the temple, you get some attention. The Jews who confronted Jesus here would have been either the temple authorities or members of the Sanhedrin. But John doesn’t record them threatening Jesus—no, they ask for a sign from Jesus.

If they thought he was just crazy, they could have taken care of him and protected everyone else in the court. But this approach seems to suggest they at least wondered if Jesus was some kind of prophet correcting how God’s people worshiped.

And Jesus does offer a sign, but they misinterpret it. In verse 19, he says, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Of course, verse 20 says they’re thinking about the literal temple they were standing in. But Jesus meant so much more. He was the true and better temple—the place where all the fullness of God dwells—not just in a room, but in a person.

Like verse 21 points out, he was saying that what they were doing was destroying the temple as a place of worship and one day, they would destroy him as well. But Jesus would be raised back up. He would rise from the dead, and he would rebuild the place of worship and access to God through faith in him alone.

Pure worship is God exclusive, it’s justice driven, and it’s Christ focused. Even once the animals and money changers were out of the temple, there was still a problem—our ability to worship God was still marred by our sin. They still had to make sacrifices every day to atone for the ways they fell short of God’s righteousness or rebelled against his rule in their lives.

And that’s the ultimate injustice that Jesus came to deal with. The wrong that he makes right is what’s wrong in each of us. We are all naturally worshipers, but because of our sin we find any other number of things to worship and place at the center of our lives other than the creator, provider, and sustainer of our lives.

Jesus drove out the things keeping people from worshiping God alone in the temple, and he’s able to drive out what keeps us from worshiping God in our own hearts. Through his sacrificial death, he pays the just penalty that we owe for how we reject God. And through his resurrection, he gained victory over death, which he now gives to his people as we experience new life in him. A life of worshipping God that’s focused on Christ.

When the disciples saw Jesus raised from the dead, verse 22 says they remembered this moment and believed. It’s through belief in Jesus that we’re able to worship God because it’s by Jesus that we are made right with God and in Jesus that we behold God.

And so, as we close this morning, the characteristics of worship we see in these verses also define what it means to be a Christian and to grow as a Christian. Whether you’re a believer right now or not, the invitation of the gospel is to find the foundation of your life in worshiping God as the best thing that gives deeper meaning and satisfaction to all the other good things in your life.

As you see yourself through the lens of worshiping him, you’ll be increasingly moved to seek justice and the good of others as your heart for God bends itself outward toward the world around you. And this isn’t because of your ability to make it happen. It’s not because of your loyalty to God or your background or how good of a person you are. No, you can have a steady foundation for a life of purpose that’s rooted in worshiping God in all you think, feel, and do as you focus on  and rest in the person and work of Christ.

He has done for us what we could not to restore our relationship with God. And so we live a life worshiping him in response. Let’s pray.