S2E217-John 1-2: Driving Out the Money Changers – Understanding Jesus’ Anger

Transcript Today's Bible Translation Bible translation used in today's episode: Ch. 1 ESV; Ch. 2 NCV Distinguished Producer Anonymous Associate Producer Michael Haner Podcast Introduction Today is Gospels Saturday, and we’ll begin the Gospel of John by reading the first two chapters. I’m calling the episode “Driving Out the Money Changers: Understanding Jesus' Anger.” Design: Scott Snider | Photo: Andrii Ishchenko on Unsplash Episode Summary I consider John 1 as the clearest declaration of the deity of Jesus. The chapter begins by echoing the opening of Genesis, stating "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Later, it says "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us," affirming Jesus' divine nature. In John 2, Jesus drives out the money changers from the Temple. This is one of two instances in the Bible where Jesus does this. The money changers extorted money from people who came to worship God by exchanging foreign money at inflated prices and by selling sacrificial animals at high prices. Jesus drove them out because they were operating from a motive of greed and exploiting those who came to the Temple to worship God. It is important to note that supporting those who proclaim the gospel is a biblical principle, as established in Mosaic Law and reiterated by Paul in the New Testament. Support This a value for value podcast. There are no advertisers because advertising equals censorship. If you enjoy the Lifespring Family Audio Bible, decide how much value it brings to you. Only you can make that determination. Then put a number on the value and donate here: SUPPORT. The Team Lifespring Family Berean, Sister Denise: Transcript CorrectionMichael Haner: Podcasting 2.0 ChaptersScott Snider: Show ArtJason Paschall: Show ArtLifespring Family Berean, Sister Brittaney: Newsletter Publisher Transcript Download .txt file. Transcript corrected by Sister Denise Steve Webb 0:00Could it be any clearer than that? Steve Webb 0:10Coming to you from Riverside, California, this is the Lifespring! One Year Bible and podcasting since 2004, I'm your OG Godcaster, Steve Webb. Today's Gospel Saturday, and we'll begin the book of John by reading the first two chapters. Before we get started, let's have a word of prayer. Our heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your Word, and especially we thank you for the book of John. As we read today, I pray, Lord, that you would open our minds touch our hearts and give us something that we can apply to our lives today. I pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Okay, let's get going. Steve Webb 0:46John, chapter 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.

Episode Transcript

Steve Webb (00:00):
Could it be any clearer than that?
Coming to you from Riverside,California, this is the
Lifespring! One Year Bible Andpodcasting since 2004. I'm your
OG Godcaster. Steve Webb,today's Gospel Saturday, And

(00:21):
we'll begin the book of John byreading the first two chapters.
Before we get started, let'shave a word of prayer. Our
Heavenly Father, we thank you somuch for your word, And
especially we thank you for thebook of John. As we read today,
I pray, Lord, that You wouldopen our minds touch our hearts
And give us something that wecan apply to our lives today. I
pray this in Jesus name, amen.Okay, let's get going.

(00:46):
John, chapter one. In thebeginning was the Word And the
Word was with God, And the Wordwas God. He was in the beginning
with God, all things were madethrough Him, And without Him was
not anything made that was made.In him was life, And the life
was the light of men. The lightshines in the darkness, And the

(01:09):
darkness has not overcome it.There was a man sent from God
whose name was John, He came asa witness to bear witness about
the light that all might believethrough him. He was not the
light, but came to bear witnessabout the light. The true light,
which gives light to everyonewas coming into the world. He

(01:29):
was in the world in the worldwas made through him, yet the
world did not know Him, He cameto His own, And his own people
did not receive him. But to allwho did receive Him who believed
in his name, he gave the rightto become children of God, who
were born not of blood, nor ofthe will of the flesh, nor of
the will of man, but of God. Andthe Word became flesh And dwelt

(01:54):
among us, And we have seen hisglory, glory is of the only Son
from the Father, full of graceAnd truth. John bore witness
about him And cried out, thiswas he of whom I said, He who
comes after me ranks before me,because he was before me, for
from his fullness, we have allreceived grace upon grace, For

(02:16):
the Law was given through Moses,grace And truth came through
Jesus Christ. No one has everseen God, the only God who is at
the father's side, he has madehim known in this as the
testimony of John, when the Jewssent priests And Levites, from
Jerusalem to ask him, Who areyou? He confessed, And did not

(02:36):
deny, but confessed, I am notthe Christ. And they asked him,
What then are you Elijah? Hesaid, I am not. Are you the
Prophet? And he answered, No. Sothey said to Him, who are you?
We need to give an answer tothose who sent us. What do you
say about yourself? He said, Iam the voice of one crying out

(02:58):
in the wilderness, Make straightthe way of the Lord, as the
prophet Isaiah said, now theyhad been sent from the
Pharisees, they asked him, thenwhy are you baptizing if you are
neither the Christ nor Elijah,nor the Prophet? John answered
them, I baptized with water, butamong you stands, one you do not
know. Even he who comes afterme, the strap of who sandal I am

(03:22):
not worthy to untie. Thesethings took place in Bethany
across the Jordan, where Johnwas baptizing. The next day he
saw Jesus coming toward him Andsaid, Behold, the Lamb of God
who takes away the sin of theworld. This is he of whom I
said, After me comes a man whoranks before me because he was

(03:42):
before me. I myself did not knowhim. But for this purpose, I
came baptizing with water, thathe might be revealed to Israel.
And John bore witness, I saw theSpirit descend from heaven like
a dove, And it remained on him.I myself did not know Him, but
He who sent me to baptize withwater said to me, he on whom you

(04:04):
see the Spirit, descend Andremain, this is he who baptizes
with the Holy Spirit. And I haveseen it have borne witness that
this is the Son of God. The nextday, again, John was standing
with two of his disciples, Andhe looked at Jesus as he walked
by And said, Behold, the Lamb ofGod. The two disciples heard him

(04:25):
say this, And they follow Jesus.Jesus turned And saw them
following And said to them, whatare you seeking? And they said
to him, Rabbi, which meansteacher, where are you staying?
He said to them, Come, And youwill see. So they came And saw
where he was staying at. Theystayed with him that day, for it

(04:45):
was about the 10th hour. One ofthe two who heard John speak And
follow Jesus was Andrew SimonPeter's brother. He first found
his own brother Simon And saidto him, We have found the
Messiah, which means Christ. Hebrought him to Jesus. Jesus
looked at him And said, You areSimon the son of John, you shall
be called sofas, which meansPeter. The next day Jesus

(05:10):
decided to go to Galilee. Hefound Philip And said to him,
Follow me. Now Philip was fromBethsaida, the city of Andrew
And Peter, Philip foundNathaniel And said to him, We
have found Him of whom Moses inthe law And also the prophets
wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, theson of Joseph, that Daniel said
to him, Can anything good comeout of Nazareth? Philip said to

(05:33):
him, Come And see. Jesus sawNathaniel coming toward him
instead of him. Behold, anIsraelite indeed, in whom there
is no deceit. Nathaniel said tohim, how do you know me? Jesus
answered him, Before Philipcalled you when you were under
the fig tree. I saw you.Nathaniel answered him, Rabbi,

(05:54):
You are the Son of God, you arethe king of Israel. Jesus
answered him, because I said toyou, I saw you under the fig
tree, do you believe you willsee greater things than these?
And he said to him, Truly, trulyI say to you, you will see
heaven open And the angels ofGod ascending And descending on

(06:15):
the Son of man.
John chapter two. Two dayslater, there was a wedding in
the town of Cana in Galilee.Jesus mother was there, And
Jesus And his followers werealso invited to the wedding.
When all the wine was gone,Jesus mother said to him, they
have no more wine. Jesusanswered, Dear woman, why come

(06:37):
to me? My time has not yet come.His mother said to the servants,
Do whatever he tells you to do.In that place, there were six
stone water jars that the Jewsused in their washing ceremony,
each jar held about 20 or 30gallons. Jesus said to the
servants, fill the jars withwater, so they filled the jars

(06:58):
to the top. Then he said tothem, now take some out And give
it to the master of the feast.So they took the water to the
master. When he tasted it, thewater had become wine. He did
not know where the wine camefrom. But the servants who had
brought the water knew themaster of the wedding called the
bridegroom And said to him,people always serve the best

(07:19):
wine first, later after theguests have been drinking a
while they serve the cheaperwine. But you have saved the
best wine until now. So in Canaof Galilee, Jesus did His first
miracle. There, he showed hisglory And his followers believed
in him. After this, Jesus wentto the town of Capernaum, with
his mother, brothers Andfollowers. They stayed there for

(07:42):
just a few days. When it wasalmost time for the Jewish
Passover feast, Jesus went toJerusalem. In the temple, he
found people selling cattle,sheep And does, he saw others
sitting at tables exchangingdifferent kinds of money. Jesus
made a whip out of cords Andforced all of them both the
sheep And the cattle to leavethe temple. He turned over the

(08:04):
tables And scattered the moneyof those who were exchanging it.
Then he said to those who wereselling pigeons, take these
things out of here, don't makemy Father's House a place for
buying And selling. When thishappened, the followers
remembered what was written inthe Scriptures, my strong love
for your temple completelycontrols me. Some of his people
said to Jesus, show us a miracleto prove you have the right to

(08:28):
do these things. Jesus answeredthem, Destroy this temple And I
will build it again in threedays. They answered, It took 46
years to build this temple. Doyou really believe you can build
it again in three days? But thetemple Jesus meant was his own
body. After Jesus was raisedfrom the dead, his followers

(08:48):
remembered that Jesus had saidthis. Then they believed the
Scripture And the words Jesushad said, When Jesus was in
Jerusalem for the passoverfeast, many people believed in
him because they saw themiracles he did. But Jesus did
not believe in them because heknew them all. He did not need
anyone to tell them about peoplebecause he knew what was in

(09:08):
people's minds.
Well, beloved, today, I've gotcomments on both chapters. John,
one is, in my opinion, theclearest declaration of the
deity of Jesus there is, itbegins as the book of Genesis
does in the beginning. Genesissays, In the beginning, God
created the heavens in theearth. John says, In the

(09:29):
beginning was the Word And theWord was with God, And the Word
was God. He was in the beginningwith God, all things were made
through Him, And without Him wasnot anything made that was made.
And then further down, we read,And the Word became flesh And
dwelt among us. Could it be anyclearer than that? I have to say

(09:49):
that these words thrill me everytime I read them, And I've been
a believer for over 50 years.This chapter never gets old. In
chapter two, we read of Jesus Ashis first miracle And of his
driving anthem money changersfrom the temple, I'd like to
talk about the ladder here for afew minutes. The Bible talks
about two instances of Jesusdoing this, here at the

(10:12):
beginning of His ministry Andalso during his final week. So
why did Jesus have an issue withthe money changers? According to
Exodus 30, verses 11 through 16,a temple tax of a half shekel
was required of Jews Andvisitors from other nations when
they offered their sacrifices,And the tax had to be paid with
temple coinage. So in order topay the taxes, all money had to

(10:36):
be exchanged for temple money.And those who provided the
service of exchanging foreignmoney into temple money did so
at highly inflated profits,thereby taking advantage of
those who came to the temple tomake sacrifices to God. And they
were some who sold sacrificialanimals to people who didn't
bring their own animals tosacrifice, again, at inflated

(10:58):
prices. Others were inspectorsof animals to see if they were
of high enough quality to besacrificed. And they would often
disapprove of animals forcingthe people to buy approved
animals for you guessed it,inflated prices. These were the
people that Jesus drove from thetemple. They were people who
extorted money from those whocame to worship God, they were

(11:20):
operating from a motive ofgreed. And please know that God
established in Mosaic law thatthe priests were to be supported
by the sacrifices that came intothe temple. And Paul said in
First Corinthians 914, thatthose who proclaim the gospel
should get their living by thegospel, meaning that they should
be supported by the people whohear the Gospel. And I mentioned

(11:43):
this because over the years,I've been criticized for asking
for donations to help supportLifespring media, And for
selling my book webs easy Biblenames pronunciation guide, I can
very confidently say that thedonations that I've received for
Lifespring media And theroyalties for my book combined,
would not even approach $1 anhour if I totaled up the time

(12:04):
invested in producing more than3000 podcast episodes And
researching writing the book Andrecording the audio of the
nearly 7000 names in the book.The book itself was a two year
endeavor. So if my goal was toextort an exorbitant profit,
then I failed miserably. Yes,there are those who have gotten

(12:24):
wealthy from preaching thegospel, but I am certainly not
one of them. And it never hasbeen my goal, which is good. The
pod father himself, Adam Koreasaid many times And only half in
jest that being a podcaster istantamount to taking a vow of
poverty And I concur. well, tellme your thoughts, call the

(12:46):
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(13:07):
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(13:34):
Anonymous is increased theirweekly donations to $33.33 which
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Jingle (14:04):
Lifespringmedia.com/support

Steve Webb (14:04):
Scott Snider did today's show art. Thank you,
Scott. God bless you. And Thanksto Sister Denise Michael Haner,
Jason Paschall And sisterBrittany. Thank you for making
me a part of your day untiltomorrow. May God bless you
richly. My name is Steve Webb.Bye