Today’s sermon comes from a series on the hard sayings of Jesus. These are the statements Jesus makes in his teaching that people wrestle with. They’re either hard to understand or they’re hard to do or they’re hard to accept.

This saying is particularly difficult because Jesus says that the temple is in fact his body. This would have been such a huge and cosmic claim to his original audience. Compared to other hard sayings, this one may not strike us in the same way though. It’s not because what he’s saying is irrelevant to our concerns today, but we need some help  translating the meaning of it. We’re going to have to ask ourselves three things to get to the bottom of it: 1) what is a temple; 2) what is Jesus’ claim about the temple; and 3) what practical difference does it make to our lives?

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on August 20, 2000. Series: Hard Sayings of Jesus 2000. Scripture: John 2:15-21.

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