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John 2:14-23

John 2:13-25 The Message (MSG)

When the Passover Feast, celebrated each spring by the Jews, was about to take place, Jesus traveled up to Jerusalem. He found the Temple teeming with people selling cattle and sheep and doves. The loan sharks were also there in full strength. Jesus put together a whip out of strips of leather and chased them out of the Temple, stampeding the sheep and cattle, upending the tables of the loan sharks, spilling coins left and right. He told the dove merchants, “Get your things out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a shopping mall!” That’s when his disciples remembered the Scripture, “Zeal for your house consumes me.” But the Jews were upset. They asked, “What credentials can you present to justify this?” Jesus answered, “Tear down this Temple and in three days I’ll put it back together.” They were indignant: “It took forty-six years to build this Temple, and you’re going to rebuild it in three days?” But Jesus was talking about his body as the Temple. Later, after he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered he had said this. They then put two and two together and believed both what was written in Scripture and what Jesus had said. During the time he was in Jerusalem, those days of the Passover Feast, many people noticed the signs he was displaying and, seeing they pointed straight to God, entrusted their lives to him. But Jesus didn’t entrust his life to them. He knew them inside and out, knew how untrustworthy they were. He didn’t need any help in seeing right through them.

John 2:14-23 The Passion Translation (TPT)

As he went into the temple courtyard, he noticed it was filled with merchants selling oxen, lambs, and doves for exorbitant prices, while others were overcharging as they exchanged currency behind their counters. So Jesus found some cords and made them into a whip. Then he drove out every one of them and their animals from the courtyard of the temple, and he kicked over their tables filled with money, scattering it everywhere! And he told the merchants, “Get these things out of here! Don’t you dare commercialize my Father’s house!” That’s when his disciples remembered the Scripture: “I am consumed with a fiery passion to keep your house pure!” Then the Jewish religious leaders challenged Jesus, “What authority do you have to do this sort of thing and what supernatural sign will you show us to prove it?” Jesus answered, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it up again in three days.” Then the Jewish leaders sneered at Jesus’ answer, “This temple took forty-six years to build, and you mean to tell us that you will raise it up in three days?” But they failed to understand that Jesus was speaking of the “temple” of his body. The disciples remembered his prophecy after Jesus rose from the dead, and believed both the Scripture and what Jesus had said. While Jesus was at the Passover Feast, the number of his followers began to grow, and many gave their allegiance to him because of all the miraculous signs they had seen him doing!

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