John 2:12-22 "Jesus destroys the temple"

Background information about passage:
Jews have 1 week to celebrate Passover in April - remembering the blood of the lamb on the door post = Jesus Christ. This continues throughout the Old Testament, the slaughtering of lambs to foretell and prophesy about Jesus. The place where this happens is the temple. Even though it was very clear that atonement happens through the sacrificial blood and nothing else, the Jews mistakenly kept relying on ther laws, precepts, deeds and cleanliness for salvation.
Picture this:
1. Passover of Jews
2. The sacrifice offering symbolising the lamb of the Passover
3. The temple where this sacrifice takes place
4. Jesus who is the real sacrificial lamb

The place where all these meets is this particular incident.
This is where the model meets the reality and the model is crushed by the reality, and the reality is fulfilled.
Every Jew over 20 years, need to go to Jerusalem 3 times 3 every year. They say around 130,000 men (excluding children and women - which could be like 1m) made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem on every Jewish feasts. They slaughtered 250,000 sheep for each feast.
Temple Tax:  The Israelites also needed to pay temple taxes every time they entered the temple. Half a shekel. Because the Roman and Greek currencies that were being used at the time at pictures of Caesar and so on, they couldn't be used for the temple tax. So the pilgrims needed to exchange their roman and Greek currencies when they came to the temple and they would be charged 50% fee for exchanging. It was the religious ruling elite, Sanhedrin who controlled and used their positions to extort a ton of money from the travelling Jews. It wasn't just for the 3 feasts, sacrifices went around all year so you can imagine the amount of money they brought in through this.
Sacrificial Animals: They also needed to bring sheep for sacrificial offering and it was the high priest who would examine whether the animals passed the test of cleanliness. The high priest also sold animals in front of the temple, so he would reject the ones that weren't bought from him and make money off that.
So this picture we're seeing today is an overarching symbol of EVERYONE who, under the disguise of "worshipping God", seeks their own gain through it.
Into that scene goes into Jesus who himself is the true sacrifice offering. Then he drives out the false model of "faith" and worship, and the reality walks in himself and destroys the temple.
V18 - Then the religious leaders of the Jews came out and stood against Jesus asking for a sign because they believed that the Messiah was going to come with massive signs. They were not genuinely curious, but were standing up to (fighting against; challenging) Jesus because the word used there is to fight against.
V19 Jesus answers – READ VERSE.
The temple here is "Naos" not "Hieron". Hieron in v 14 is used to describe the whole temple, in terms of outer building and structure. But word Jesus uses in v19 is "Naos" which emphasizes the holy place within the temple.
Other parts of the bible numerously use the word “Naos” to describe Jesus. This word is also used to describe the believers in Corinthians. So he's saying "Destroy me and I will raise myself up in 3 days" “Go ahead and destroy the true temple, which is me, and I will rise back in 3 days”. They asked for a sign and Jesus is saying my resurrection will be the sign.
All Jesus's miracles and signs are focused on the cross and resurrection - he did not come to do miracles for us, he came do die in our place.
Summary:
This is a scene where Jesus is exposing and destroying those who outwardly say they serve God but are deep down only seeking their own, which is being represented by the pharisees here, but is on behalf of EVERY sinner who knows no one but himself, including us. And through this destruction of the temple, he is showing that on behalf of every such sinner, he needs to and he will become this dirty temple that will be destroyed. He will be that temple which he is destroying right now.
This is the truth of the gospel. This is God’s message to us:
1. God becomes cursed to set us free from curses
2. God becomes sin to set us free from sin
3. God becomes the cursed temple to make us into new living temples
4. God becomes the cursed tree to make us into new living trees that will bear fruit
5. God dies so that we will live
God is repeatedly saying throughout the whole bible that the fruits of salvation I want are not outwardly actions. This event is a clear emphasis on this.
So what are the true fruits that God desires? Fruits of "TRUE worship".  Acknowledging God as God. The word "Worship” = “worth + ship"
(The word is derived from the Old English worthscipe, meaning worthiness or worth-ship? to give, at its simplest, worth to something)
Give proper worth, value to God. He is God, you are His creation. Stop giving worth to yourself and to him who is worthy. So worship means everything you do, your life that you live with that heart of "only He is truly worthy". He wants fruits from us that give appropriate worth to him, give glory to him. To those who have the heart that He is the creator, He is the centre of the universe, everything comes from him - to those who live with this heart and attitude, then His true self will be revealed through those lives, NATURALLY. That's what God means by "fruits of the Holy Spirit". Gal 5:20 says clearly the fruits of the spirit. Worship is not something you do at a certain time and a certain place - worship is your life.
Life of worship means that I come down from the centre of my universe, placing God there instead and treating God like God should be treated. Your whole life that flows from that acknowledgement is worship.
Romans 12:1 "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in vew if God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship".
Here, this is saying to give up our lives as living sacrifices. How much clear can it get? The Pharisees and the religious Jews outwardly looked like they were living holy and righteous lives by keeping the law, but their lives were centred on themselves. We are exactly the same. As I have been sharing with you for last little while, I hope you're seeing the same thing in your lives, where everything we do is for our own glory. Even our humility, even our act of worship is centred on us.
But God knows that... Which is why, he became the temple and was destroyed for our sake, and by his blood he made us into his TRUE temples:
Corinthians 3:16 "Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's spirit lives in you?
He has done this, not of our own... Because not only does God know that we only think of ourselves, and are not capable of ever being a true temple, he wants to expose that. He wants you to see it!!
So that we can say "AH, it's only by the pure grace of God!"
So those who have now been made into new true temples will fall face down on the ground in front of the magnitude of God's grace, and with bursting thanksgiving towards God for His great gift, will live lives of worship. So naturally that life will centre around God, and not about what He can give me. Which is why it's possible be satisfied with whatever He does or does not give you.
Those who have experienced grace and experienced love can have this take place naturally. This is a life where you recognise Jesus as your Lord, as the owner and master of your life. You go where He wants you to go, you stay where He wants you to stay, you are content with anything and everything he gives or does not give.
Has Jesus come and forcefully invaded your soul and taken up his place as Lord? Or are even your religious acts for yourself?
1Timothy6:3-5 (READ VERSE)
"If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, he is conceited and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions and constant friction between men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain"
To these people who do not know God, even the acts of godliness is a means to financial gain.
Are there anyone here like that? “If I pray, if I give offering, if I come to worship, then he might give me something better”. Jesus calls those people robbers and thieves in today's passage. This is not faith. This is not being born again.
Being born again in faith shows itself in continued growth in submitting to him, being satisfied in him, knowing and believing that what He is letting happen in my life is the absolute best for me because He is my Lord and he knows best. Completely surrendering to him. That's what we call “walk of faith”.
Have you come today because you really like him, and love him, and you are so thankful for His grace, and you want to know him more, you want to know what he wants from your life, and you want to know about the glories of his kingdom? 
Or have you come to borrow His name in the pursuit of your interests?
Israelites believed in God - but they didn't care if that God was Yahweh (Jehovah) or Baal, or the Sun God or the Golden Cow. "I don't care who it is, just satisfy me!"
To those people God says:
Jeremiah 7:21-23
 “‘This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Go ahead, add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat the meat yourselves! For when I brought your forefathers out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not just give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices, but I gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in all the ways I command you, that it may go well with you.

Obeying God – surrender to him. Make him Lord. This means stopping all forms of humanism. Complete dependence on him. Me dying to self with Jesus on the Cross, and Jesus being my life.