Jesus Enters The Temple

[0:00] Last week we saw Jesus and his not so triumphal entry into Jerusalem. And this morning we're going to see Jesus enter the temple with kind of mixed response.

[0:16] So if you would open up your Bibles to Matthew chapter 21. I'm going to read through verses 12 through 17. And as we're reading remember that Jesus wants your heart when it comes to worshiping him.

[0:30] All of it. And when we think about our church as a whole. All of our hearts. In our worship of his great name. And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple.

[0:45] And he overturned the tables of the money changers. And the seats of those who sold pigeons or doves. He said to them it is written my house shall be called a house of prayer.

[0:56] But you make it a den of robbers. And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple. And he healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did.

[1:10] And the children crying out in the temple. Hosanna to the son of David. The chief priests and the scribes. They were indignant. And they said to Jesus.

[1:20] Do you hear what these are saying? And Jesus said to them. Yes. Have you never read out of the mouth of infants and nursing babes you have prepared praise?

[1:35] And leaving them he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there. This morning I'm just going to walk us through this passage. We're going to see Jesus in the temple.

[1:47] And then we're going to see Jesus drive out some insiders. And then Jesus is going to welcome in some outsiders. And then Jesus is going to be recognized and be praised by a bunch of kids. And then Jesus is going to be criticized by a bunch of blind religious leaders.

[2:02] And then Jesus is going to wrap it up by saying their praise vindicates me. So let's look at Jesus entering the temple. The first five words of verse 12.

[2:16] And Jesus entered the temple. Now you might be thinking. Come on Salvati. Let's get to the action. Let's get to Jesus throwing some tables around. Well if we did that we would miss something of incredible significance.

[2:32] Jesus entered the temple. The temple is going to be an important backdrop in the remaining chapters of Matthew. But what I want to remind you of is that the Bible is a story of God dwelling with his people.

[2:50] Remember back in the Garden of Eden. God was present with his first people Adam and Eve. They hung out in the cool of the day together. Fast forward to the tabernacle.

[3:03] God's people Israel have been released sent out of Egypt. And God dwells in the midst of his people. And he has them construct for him a really elaborate tent called a tabernacle.

[3:16] And as God's people Israel were moving into the promised land. God would be with them in their midst. And he would come and descend in a cloud in this temple.

[3:28] And Moses would meet with him. God present with his people. Fast forward to Solomon. And the building of the first temple in Jerusalem in the promised land.

[3:39] Solomon builds this glorious temple. And we read how after the temple is dedicated. God in a cloud of his presence descends and occupies the temple.

[3:53] God present with his people. And what we read in Ezra. There's this awful thing that happens in 586. The Babylonians come in. They totally destroy the temple.

[4:05] But in Ezra, God rebuilds the temple. And it's the second temple. The temple of Zerubbabel. And it's this temple that Herod the Great decides to do a serious overhaul on.

[4:21] And expand and make amazing. And it's that temple that Jesus walks into that we're reading about right now. God has always dwelt with his people.

[4:35] God has always dwelt with his people. If you flip back to Matthew chapter 1. Verses 22 and 23.

[4:47] Talking about the birth of Jesus. Typically we hear this around Christmas time. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet.

[4:59] Behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son. And they should call his name Emmanuel. Which means God with us. Whose name is that?

[5:11] Jesus. He is God with us. He is God incarnate. Do you remember John chapter 1?

[5:23] Talking about Jesus. He's the word. And he dwelt among us. He tabernacled among us. So the significance of what happens in these first five words of Matthew 21 verse 12 is this.

[5:40] God incarnate is entering the temple. He's occupying the temple. He's walking into the place that Jews of that day said there's where God's presence is.

[5:53] Jesus. And Jesus. God incarnate. Walks in. Now the question comes up.

[6:06] What's he going to do? And what we see him do when he walks in. Is that he's going to drive out the insiders. And so look at again verses 12 and 13.

[6:20] Let's look at 12. And Jesus entered the temple. God incarnate coming into his house. And he drove out all who sold and bought in the temple. And he overturned the tables of the money changers.

[6:32] And the seats of those who sold pigeons. I mean typically we don't like to think of Jesus this way. We think of Jesus as the prince of peace. And who holds babies.

[6:43] And carries little lambs over his shoulders. But right now what we're seeing is Jesus. Jesus is intense. He walks into the temple. And things get intense. He drives out people.

[6:56] He overturns furniture. He's being aggressive. Why is he so spicy? Why is he so worked up? Why is he so quiet? Well it has to do with the people.

[7:08] That are in the temple. So let's look at who these people are. These are people who are selling and buying. These are people who are exchanging money. These are people who are selling pigeons or doves.

[7:20] Who are these people? And what are they doing there? Well I want to remind you that Jesus has entered into Jerusalem. The week leading up to Passover. Which is a great feast in Jerusalem.

[7:31] So Jerusalem the city. Is filling up with people. In order to celebrate Passover. To observe it. It's a big holy festival. And so you have all these people coming into this city.

[7:46] From all over the place. To quote unquote worship. And part of their worship is going to be sacrifice.

[7:56] So the offering of a Passover lamb. Now if we all were living in Capernaum. And we're saying we're going to make this multi-mile trip down to Jerusalem to observe Passover.

[8:09] And we're like thinking what do we bring with us? And we're like should we bring our Passover lamb? And I'm going to tell you you know what? We've got multiple days ahead of us. We can buy one in Jerusalem.

[8:21] Just leave the lamb here. We'll pick one up there. Or let's say we're from Sidon. And we're using Roman money in order to kind of make our living.

[8:33] And kind of buy our stuff. If we were to go to Jerusalem and give a money offering in the temple. We would need to convert our Roman money into the currency of the temple.

[8:45] Which was Tyrian money from Tyre. Because it was such a solid currency of the day. And so we would need to exchange our money. There was a real need. If we were poor people coming down into Jerusalem.

[9:00] The animal that we could afford to sacrifice is a dove. Those are the dove salesmen there. So these people who are inside the temple.

[9:15] They are selling animals. They're exchanging money. They're facilitating the quote unquote worship of Passover week.

[9:26] I'm not sure if you all have been down to the harbor market on Saturday mornings. I love going down there.

[9:38] Part of the way I love going down there is it's a lot of hustle and bustle. I like that. So there's a lot going on. And so imagine Jesus walking into the temple.

[9:49] And he essentially walks into a harbor market. So what's going on here is this. Passover afforded a business opportunity.

[10:02] And the outer courts of the temple were thrown open for business. And so of course there's the opportunity for exploiting people.

[10:16] But the real problem is where all this business is taking place. It's taking place in the temple. Now you may be asking yourself.

[10:28] Well what's wrong with conducting business in the temple? Well look at verse 13. Jesus is driving these people out.

[10:38] And as he's driving them out. He says it is written. My house shall be called a house of prayer. But you make it a den of robbers. See these folks.

[10:52] They had repurposed the temple. In order to line their pockets. They weren't there to facilitate worship. They were facilitating their monthly income.

[11:07] Now before the internet. When it comes to a retail business. It's all about location. So these entrepreneurs.

[11:19] In the outer courts of the temple. They're just thinking. Hey if we can get into the temple. And sell our goats and our doves. And exchange some money. In order to make some money. Because they would charge on that.

[11:30] I mean. It's one stop shopping. It's so convenient. And so what Jesus sees happening here.

[11:41] Is the profaning of God's place. The temple being used for something. It was never intended to be used for. It's not meant to be used for the acquisition of wealth.

[11:56] It's used. It's there for the giving of praise to God. So Jesus kicks out these people. Because they're profaning the temple. They've repurposed it.

[12:07] For income production. Not praise production. So imagine with me. We're all Gentiles. We're coming down from Sidon. We're like. We're convinced.

[12:18] Yahweh is the one true God. Let's go down and worship him. Passover week in Jerusalem. We're cool. Going into the temple. We'll go into the courts of the Gentiles. We can't go any further than that.

[12:29] We're okay with that. Because we're just happy to acknowledge that Yahweh is the one true God. So we all walk in together. We walk through the outer courts. With all this hustle and bustle of business going on.

[12:41] We walk into the court of the Gentiles. And all along. All the way down. We're like. I can't wait to sing. To speak. Psalm 8. To God. In his temple.

[12:52] As someone from Sidon. I can't wait. So we get into the court of the Gentiles. And I set up shop. And I'm like. I am ready to give praise. To the God of the Bible.

[13:03] And I'm going to let Psalm 8 rip. And so. As I feel. From my innermost man. All this praise coming up. And I'm going to rip out of Psalm. Meh.

[13:16] Meh. Meh. Meh. Meh. My praise is distracted. There was another kind of worship going on in the temple.

[13:31] It's not the worship of God. Jesus sees it. And out of his jealousy and zeal for God's worship.

[13:42] He drives these people out. They're the insiders. They're supposed to be facilitating worship. But they're not facilitating the worship of God.

[13:55] They've been profaning the temple. It's not what it's meant for. So Jesus drives them out. That reference. Where Jesus says.

[14:08] It's written. My house shall be called a house of prayer. It's taken from Isaiah 56. And in Isaiah 56. God is telling. About a future time. When he will gather. Foreigners.

[14:20] And outcasts of Israel. Outsiders. And he's going to bring them into his temple. And they are going to be made joyful. In the praise of God.

[14:34] There's going to come a time. When they will offer. Make offerings. And God will accept them. From these outsiders. Because their hearts are right. And so when Jesus says.

[14:47] For my house shall be called a house of prayer. For all peoples. For all peoples. When he sees these insiders. Distracting people.

[14:57] From the true worship of God. He. God incarnate. Walks in. And he says. You're out. No temple for you. You're out. You're out. God. So the irony is.

[15:14] That these people. Who are supposed to be. Facilitating worship. Were actually distracting. From the true worship of God. So this is a side of Jesus.

[15:26] That we may not. Be used to seeing. Jesus being forceful. Jesus being angry. There seems to be a hostility here.

[15:38] He's throwing tables and chairs around. You could say. He's kind of being pushy. He's driving people out. Of the temple. And we got to ask the question.

[15:49] Why? And the answer to that question is. Jesus is jealous. For God to be truly. And fully worshiped. He's protective.

[16:00] Of the glory. And honor. And praise. And majesty. Due to God. And God. Alone. These business people. Were profaning. The holy purpose of the temple.

[16:11] And when God incarnate. Walks in. And sees what is happening. He drives them out. It's not going to happen here. He drives out the insiders.

[16:23] So here's what this means. For us today. There's no longer a temple. The temple that Jesus stood in. Was raised. In AD 70.

[16:34] It's no longer there. But what we learn about. Is that. After Jesus death. And resurrection. Jesus. Has established. A new temple. And this new temple.

[16:45] Is not made out of bricks and mortar. As first Peter would say. This new temple. Is made out of living stones. God's people. Are the new temple.

[16:57] Of God. We. Are the temple of God. Indwelt. By the Holy Spirit. It's a better temple.

[17:09] And here's what this means. For us now. Jesus is just as jealous. For the worship of God. In this temple. As he was. In that temple.

[17:19] God. He wants us. To be. Wholly. Focused. On the worship. Of our God. When we gather together. He's jealous.

[17:30] For that. He's. Lovingly. And passionately. Committed. To us. As a people. Worshiping God. Together. Truly.

[17:40] And fully. So here's what this means. Our. Risen.

[17:51] King. Is more than willing. To drive out. Any kind of. Desires. That would. Kind of. Lead to the. False worship.

[18:02] Of things that are not God. He wants to purify us. He wants to cleanse us. And you know what the result will be? Unity. Unity.

[18:14] In fullness. Of joy. In the worship of God. Together. We welcome it. It's a good. Holy work. So what we see happening in.

[18:28] These two verses. That God incarnate. Enters. Into the temple. And he purifies it. His first act.

[18:40] Is to drive out the insiders. But his next act. Is to welcome in the outsiders. Look at verse 14. After sending these folks out.

[18:52] Jesus says. In the blind and the lame. Or we read. In the blind and the lame. Came to him in the temple. And he healed him. Remember the Isaiah 56 reference. Foreigners.

[19:05] Foreigners. Outcasts. Of Israel. Are going to be brought. Into the temple. And made joyful. In the worship of God. Do you know who that is.

[19:16] In this passage. It's the blind and the lame. Jesus has. Pushed out the. Insiders. And now is welcoming. In the outsiders.

[19:27] These blind and lame people. Come to Jesus. God incarnate.

[19:38] Emmanuel. In the temple. And Jesus. In his mercy. In his grace. He heals them. He gives them sight.

[19:49] He makes them whole. What we see. Later. In verse 15. But when the chief priests. And scribes. Saw the wonderful things. That he did. If you were there.

[20:01] Seeing what Jesus was doing. You would most likely say. That is amazing. That is so wonderful. Look who he's healing. Look who he's changing.

[20:15] He's welcoming in the outcasts. These would be the people. On the fringes. These who would be the people. Who good Jews. Of that day. The religious folk. Would just walk by.

[20:27] And Jesus is saying. No, no, no. You. You. You come to me. You're welcome. Here. In this place. In my presence. You are the true worshipers.

[20:40] You who are humble of heart. Seeking healing for me. Come into my presence. God welcomes the outsider.

[20:50] And we're all outsiders. And we're all outsiders. Our sin. Casts us out. Of the holy presence of God. But God in his grace. Through Jesus.

[21:00] Brings us in. And he brings us in. Together. So God. We see happening here. As God welcomes. Into his presence.

[21:12] Those who humbly recognize. their need. Now this is the Jesus whom all of our hearts rise to. This is the Jesus who welcomes in, into his presence the bruised, the broken, and the overbaked.

[21:31] The strung out. The I don't think I can get through the rest of this day, folks. Now, you see, the temple, the temple, the temple, where God is, Jesus, he's not saying you've got to clean up your life before you come to him. He's saying you come to me as you are.

[21:54] I welcome you. Now maybe this morning you've come into this building and you're feeling like an outcast. Maybe you have it in your mind it's kind of this lurking thing in the back of your skull that Jesus would never welcome you into his presence because something you've done in the past or something done to you in the past.

[22:17] And you're like thinking, oh, I'm sure he would be nice to me, but he wouldn't really welcome me in. Maybe you think of yourself as too damaged, too far gone.

[22:29] Maybe you think of yourself as too broken to be fixed. Maybe you think that you're too lame to be helped. Maybe you have this deep and ongoing sense that as I heard one man quote this past week that God has this ongoing mild disgust for me.

[22:47] Maybe that's you. Maybe you feel like you're the outcast. Maybe you have this kind of hidden lameness of soul. Maybe you have had this insatiable addiction and you have burned so many bridges in your life.

[23:01] You're just so ashamed. You're like, Jesus would never welcome me in. You think that if Jesus laid his eyes on you, you would see in his eyes this kindling of rage to you for what you have done and the mess that you've made and he would take you by the collar and throw you out of his presence.

[23:23] Maybe that's what you're thinking. Oh, I've got good news for you. Jesus is not that way towards those who are humble.

[23:36] Jesus is not that way towards people who come to him looking for healing. There's not one record of someone in our Bibles of coming to Jesus who was humble, honest need, looking for help and Jesus says, oh, I've got to get to Starbucks.

[23:51] I'm sorry. I can't help you right now. Not once. What I love about this verse is that these blind and the lame who came to Jesus were not told.

[24:12] How did the blind folk find their way in? Did they grope their way up through the colonnade and stairs into the outer courts and find Jesus? Were they led by the hand to Jesus? We're not told.

[24:23] Here's what we know. They walked in blind. They walked out seeing because they encountered Jesus. And the lame, we're not told what kind of lame.

[24:35] Did they have some kind of palsy? Were they able to walk? Were they carried in? We're not told. But we do know when they encountered Jesus and they were healed, they strided out of the temple, made whole.

[24:49] That's what Jesus is able to do then. That's what he's able to do now. And here's what Jesus does for sinners today. You see, within four days of Jesus saying this, standing in the temple, he would be hanging on a Roman cross outside the walls of Jerusalem.

[25:08] The incarnate king now standing in the temple who welcomes outsiders and heals them, he will be cast out as a sinner.

[25:19] all in order to bring sinners into a deep and abiding and vital relationship with the one true God. He was crucified outside the gate.

[25:38] But he's alive. He's alive today and he's alive and he's as full of mercy and grace as he was in the temple millennia ago and he welcomes all and any that would come to him.

[25:57] He's alive and he's full of mercy and he welcomes you into his presence. He welcomes in the outsiders and we're all outsiders.

[26:09] So we've seen Jesus drive out the insiders and welcome in the outsiders and now verse 15 Matthew points us to two other groups of people who were there.

[26:24] And if there's a contrast between the insiders being driven out and the outsiders being welcomed in there's another contrast between these two groups of people. Read with me.

[26:35] Verse 15 But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did and the children crying out in the temple Hosanna to the son of David.

[26:48] Do you see that? There were children there. There were children in the temple. There were children in these outer courts and they're seeing everything that's going on. And their response to these wonderful things is what?

[27:02] Praise. Praise to Jesus in the temple. They were not indifferent to Jesus.

[27:18] They were crying out to him Hosanna to the son of David. It's a messianic title reference. They're saying praise to you Messiah King.

[27:31] We see what's going on. We recognize you. Praise to you. This is the same thing that the crowds were proclaiming to Jesus. Those Galilean crowds that had followed Jesus down as he's entering into Jerusalem.

[27:45] They're singing Hosanna to the highest. Hosanna to the son of David. These boys who are in the temple have picked up that same thing.

[27:56] It's what the two blind men said in Bethany. Son of David have mercy on us. This is the king and he's being recognized by kids.

[28:11] From our study of Matthew we know that children were often looked down upon. I mean in Matthew 19 the disciples were like parents don't bring your children to Jesus. He doesn't have time for them. And Jesus is like what are you guys talking about?

[28:22] Bring them to me and he blesses them. Jesus in Matthew 18 sets a child before his disciples and says whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

[28:33] So when we read these children in the temple who are worshiping Jesus after they see him welcoming in the outsiders and healing him man not only did it happen it's an example for us.

[28:48] We respond in praise when we become aware that God has healed another outsider. these children model for us the praise to be given to Jesus when he shows his mercy and grace to another one who doesn't deserve it.

[29:12] I mean we're all outsiders to whom the risen Christ has shown mercy and grace and when we see it happen our response says Hosanna to the son of David God be praised.

[29:32] But there's not just praise going on. Matthew points to another contrasting group of men not children but men who are at the temple and who have observed all that's been going on.

[29:46] But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did the healing of these outsiders and when these chief priests saw the children crying out in the temple Hosanna to the son of David when they heard that they were indignant.

[30:01] They were ticked off. They were angry. These were the religious leaders of Israel in Jerusalem. These are the guys that would have had the offices in the temple.

[30:15] These are the ones that would have given the initial okay for these people to come in to the outer courts and start selling stuff. We don't know if there was a stall fee but they would have okayed it.

[30:32] These are the guys who would have made it difficult for the blind and the lame to even enter the temple. These are the guys who were supposed to be shepherding God's people and in walks the incarnate king into the temple and they're mad because kids are saying he's the Messiah.

[30:59] What they should have been doing is joining in praise and what they end up doing is criticizing. You see of this story these men are the ones who are the most blind of all.

[31:16] they don't recognize who's in their midst and they're so angry because these children are calling Jesus the Messiah.

[31:32] They say to Jesus in verse 16 do you not hear what these guys are saying? It's not a question. They're telling him to shut them up.

[31:46] These children are praising you Jesus they're calling you the Messiah would you please shut them up? They shouldn't be doing this. Do you hear what they're saying?

[32:02] So we have this contrast between these children praising Jesus and these chief priests and scribes who are trying to shut up the praise of Jesus to hinder the praise of Jesus.

[32:13] now look at verse 16 and Jesus response. They say do you hear what these these are saying and Jesus says to them oh yeah I hear it.

[32:28] Yes. Yes I hear it. I hear it loud and clear. Yes. And then he says to them have you not heard out of the mouths of infants and nursing babes you have prepared praise.

[32:42] Jesus is quoting Psalm 8 too. It's it's the psalm that we started the service with. It's it's that psalm that in verse 1 and verse 9 the first verse and the last verse it's oh Lord our Lord how majestic is your name in all the earth.

[32:56] It's a psalm of praise to God and and Jesus is using it very specifically. He's saying these children who are praising me they're the fulfillment of that.

[33:07] They should be praising. And and he's also saying they're praising me. He's claiming to be the God of Psalm 8 too. He's he's saying their praise of me is right.

[33:23] But you know what I also saying Psalm 8 2 is it's it's a way in which Jesus is vindicated. In Psalm 8 2 we read this.

[33:35] Let me find it. We read this.

[33:47] Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babes you have prepared praise and what follows is in the presence of your enemies. So what's going on here is this.

[33:58] Jesus in the face of his enemies the chief scribes and the chief priests and the scribes he's being praised by these kids in the temple and what Jesus is saying is oh yeah this is fulfillment.

[34:10] These children are vindicating me and who I am and me being God incarnate in the temple right now opening up to outsiders vindicated. the question is why aren't the chief priests and scribes praising Jesus along with these kids and the answer to that question is their hearts were hard.

[34:38] They were hardened. They did not believe him to be the Christ. They were blinded by their own sinful pride. They don't have eyes to see or to hear and this is what Jesus was getting at in Luke 19.

[34:49] He's coming into the city and he says he weeps and he says you haven't recognized the day of your visitation. They don't recognize him. They don't recognize him.

[35:01] So in verse 17 after quoting Psalm 8 Jesus leaves the temple and he lodges in Bethany most likely with his friends Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. this passage we've seen God incarnate walk into the temple and when he walks in he drives out the insiders and then he welcomes in the outsiders and then he receives the praise of kids and then he receives the criticism of these religious leaders and he says hey these kids praise vindicate me.

[35:35] I'm God in the flesh in the temple right now. This passage is all about Jesus. This passage is all about Jesus who is God incarnate in his temple and how to respond to him.

[35:56] And this morning I want to remind you and point you to three things of how we're going to respond to this. the first is this.

[36:08] We're all outsiders. We're all outsiders in need of God's grace to be brought us into a vital relationship with God. So regardless of the neighborhood you live in, regardless if you're a guy or a gal, regardless of your skin color or your education level or your annual income or your employment status, regardless of it all, we're all outsiders because of our sin and we need to be brought in by God's grace through Jesus.

[36:37] We're all outsiders. By his grace. And when he brings us into a living relationship with him, he builds us into his living temple, the church.

[36:52] So the first thing that we need to remember is we're all outsiders in need of God's grace. The second is this. Jesus takes his rightful place.

[37:08] It was right for Jesus to stand in the temple and be praised by children. It was right. Today, do you recognize the rightful place Jesus has not only in your life but in our church?

[37:26] He's the incarnate risen king. And he's not going to tolerate in us any profaning of the worship due his name. And so he's going to do and continue to do a good, holy, gracious work in us to unite us together in the praise of his great name.

[37:47] It's his rightful place. So in light of that, I want to ask you to do something this week. I want to ask you to go before the Lord with this question.

[38:04] Would you ask the risen Christ to purify your heart so that he may have the rightful place not only in your heart but in our church?

[38:17] That he would take front and center. That he would be the one in whom all of our praise is directed. Would you join me this week in asking God to do a work in which he purifies your heart to worship him?

[38:35] Jesus takes his rightful place. The third and last point of application has to do with what happens here on a Sunday morning when we sing together.

[38:49] very specific. We're not to hinder each other's praise of Jesus.

[39:01] We're not to hinder each other's praise. Those children who cried out Hosanna to the son of David, they were right. And when the chief priest told Jesus to essentially shut him up, Jesus says, no.

[39:16] Doesn't hinder their praise. it was right for them to praise him. So let's apply this to when we sing together in this room on a Sunday morning. What's got to be going on in your heart when we sing together?

[39:33] When we're standing up and someone next to you raises their hands to worship and this is new to you, don't be distracted by that. Don't feel threatened by that.

[39:45] rejoice in that. Give this person the benefit of any doubt that they are worshiping Jesus at that moment. And so, when you realize that, you can return to your rejoicing of Jesus.

[40:02] So if someone's raising their hand next to you, rejoice. Rejoice. Or let's say that someone next to you were singing a song and they begin to weep and that weeping goes from a quiet weeping into a loud weeping and you find yourself a little distracted, you find yourself a little uncomfortable with the degree of emotion and you're like, okay, what's going on?

[40:28] Maybe someone should show this person out! We're not going to do that. When someone is weeping or wailing because they're coming to the presence of God and they're remembering they're an outsider and He's welcomed them in, we rejoice.

[40:50] We say, oh God, thank you for ministering to my brother and my sister and I'm an outsider too! We rejoice. We rejoice. So if this were to happen, don't be distracted.

[41:04] Don't feel threatened by that. It may be new to you. That's okay. Let's give them the benefit of the doubt and say, God is meeting them and we rejoice together.

[41:16] Let's not hinder each other's praise. Finally, if we're singing and someone kind of goes off script and we're singing rejoice, rejoice and someone goes, oh, hallelujah, praise be to God.

[41:33] Thank you, Lord. We're not going to cross the hands of our heart and say, what's going on? We're going to rejoice with them.

[41:45] We're going to celebrate with them. We're going to trust that, yes, they too are being ministered to by God and they're giving voice to praise in their hearts and we rejoice with them.

[42:01] What we're not to do is to do what the chief priests and the scribes do and try to squelch the true and right worship of Jesus. We're not going to do that.

[42:15] So whether it's raising hands, whether it's weeping, whether it's spontaneous words of praise, we join in. We rejoice in that.

[42:31] So what must be going on in your heart so that you can rejoice with those who rejoice even when their rejoicing makes you uncomfortable? What must be going on? Remember who they're praising.

[42:44] It's the incarnate God that walked in the temple and now is reigning on high. And remember you too were an outsider and you too have experienced a wonderful thing from Jesus.

[43:05] You too were shown great grace. In conclusion I just want to remind you of this. There's going to come a day when God gathers all of his people from every tribe, tongue, and nation and we gather around him.

[43:22] And what Revelation 21 says when the new Jerusalem comes down there's no more temple. Do you know why? God and the lamb are the temple. And we're going to give him praise and glory together.

[43:36] And there's going to be a lot of different people and there's going to be a lot of different things going on. But he receives it all. Because he alone is worthy.

[43:46] he's our great God. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we do thank you so much for this passage in our Bibles where we see you doing something that is striking.

[44:05] You're wonderful. You're amazing and you're glorious. Lord Jesus, would you form in us your people, a people united in true and full praise of you and we welcome rejoicing of your name.

[44:24] Lord, would you grow us, mature us and unite us. Above all, Lord Jesus, we want your name exalted.

[44:37] Hosanna to the Son of David. It's your name we pray. Amen.