You may be seated.
And kids, you may not be excused.
You are trapped in this room with the adults.
As you notice, you have a bulletin.
!
13 through 25, it's on page 1054 of your Pew Bible.
Hear the word of God.
The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
In the temple, he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons,
and the money changers sitting there.
And making a whip of cords, he drove them out,
and brought them all out of the temple with the sheep and oxen,
and he poured out the coins of the money changers,
and overturned their tables.
And he told those who sold the pigeons,
Take these things away.
Do not make my father's house a house of trade.
His disciples remembered that it was written,
Zeal for your house will consume me.
So the Jews said to him,
What sign do you show us for doing these things?
Jesus answered them,
Destroy this temple.
And in three days, I will raise it up.
The Jews then said,
It has taken 46 years to build this temple,
and you will raise it up in three days?
But he was speaking about the temple of his body.
When therefore he was raised from the dead,
his disciples remembered that he had said this,
and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
Now, verse 23,
Now, when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast,
many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing.
But Jesus, on his part,
did not entrust himself to them,
because he knew all people,
and needed no one to bear witness about man,
for he himself knew what was in man.
May God bless the hearing of his word.
Imagine you and your extended family are at a holiday gathering,
a shared meal.
Your Uncle Richie suddenly stands up and announces that he is a she,
a woman trapped in a man's body.
He goes on to say that he has started hormone therapy two months ago.
Furthermore, he has filed divorce from your aunt,
your Aunt Peggy of 20 years marriage.
And then he says,
Oh, by the way, my name's not Richie, it's Rachel.
Shocked, you look at your Aunt Peggy,
tears streaming down her face.
She quietly gets up and leaves the table.
Do you know what you call that?
That's called a bombshell.
When someone makes this unexpected and disruptive announcement,
but not all bombshells are bad.
Your phone buzzes.
You don't recognize the phone number.
So you ignore it.
A minute later, you hear another ding.
A voicemail has been left.
And so you listen to the voicemail.
Let me get into character.
Hello, my name is Terrence Mayhew.
I'm the estate attorney of your distant relative, Aunt Edith.
Please call me at your earliest convenience.
So you call back.
And immediately, you hear from Attorney Mayhew.
He informs you that your reclusive Aunt Edith,
that you met once,
that she had died,
and that she had made you the sole beneficiary
of her $27.4 million estate.
Bombshell.
Unexpected.
Disruptive.
As in a $27.4 million disruption.
That's not that bad, is it?
This morning, you're going to see Jesus drop a theological bombshell.
A theological bombshell that changes the way we worship.
Unexpected.
Disruptive.
In the best sense.
It's good news.
And so this is how we're going to proceed this morning.
It's outlined in your bulletin.
We're going to answer three questions.
What happens?
What happens in the account?
We'll walk through that.
We're going to see the temple.
We're going to see the whip.
We're going to see the bombshell.
And we're going to see the x-ray knowledge.
And then we're going to ask,
what's the point?
What's this getting at?
And then we're going to ask,
to wrap things up,
so what?
What difference does this make for us now?
So, what's happening in this account?
Let's start with the temple.
The backdrop.
The first thing you need to notice about this passage
is that it starts and ends in verse 13,
and then in verse 23, it's framed.
Did you notice that?
With a reference to the Passover in Jerusalem in verse 13,
and then in verse 23,
we have the Passover feast in Jerusalem again.
It's framing the passage.
It's the backdrop for what this is happening.
The Passover was one of these annual Jewish feasts.
It was a high holiday among the Jews,
and they would pilgrimage to Jerusalem
to observe the Passover.
And if you're a little kind of rusty
on what the Passover is,
in Exodus chapter 12,
it's the 10th plague.
God makes this decree to Pharaoh,
and through Moses,
that he is going to send out the angel of death
as the 10th plague,
the final plague.
And what the Jews needed to do at twilight
was to sacrifice a lamb.
And they were to wipe the blood of that Passover lamb
onto their homes,
and when the angel of death rolled out
to kill the firstborn,
it would pass over the firstborn children of Israel.
It was the Passover.
And so it became a feast
in which the people of Israel
would observe every spring,
every April,
and they would kill a Passover lamb at twilight.
John the Baptist, remember,
referenced Jesus in chapter 1
as the Lamb of God.
So the Passover's going on.
It's a big deal.
And it's taking place in Jerusalem.
Zion, the city of David,
the central city of Israel.
It's where Jewish worship took place,
and during the Passover,
it would swell from 35 to 50,000 people.
It would swell up to about 150 to 250,000 people.
It was a big deal.
And so this passage begins and ends
with a reference to Passover in Jerusalem.
But there's a reason why
that we're being shown this.
Because the temple is in Jerusalem.
It's the central place of Israel's worship
because that's where God dwelt.
God would dwell in the temple
in the Holy of Holies.
He would be present with His people in the temple.
You could say that the whole Bible
is a story of God seeking to dwell with His people.
Remember back in Genesis,
Adam and Eve dwelling with God in the garden?
When Israel was delivered out of Egypt,
God dwelt with them with a pillar of cloud by day
and a pillar of fire by night.
After the giving of the law at Sinai,
they were instructed to build the tabernacle,
which was this very elaborate portable tent
made of animal skin.
And God would dwell with His people as they wandered.
And then there was the building of Solomon's temple
in 2 Chronicles 3.
And the cloud of God's presence
came and dwelt within the temple
in 2 Chronicles 6.
But that temple was destroyed
by Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon in 586.
And then it was rebuilt in 516.
And that second temple,
which was not as glorious as the first,
that second temple was then expanded
by Herod the Great in 20 to 18 BC.
It started the kind of expansion
and the second temple,
the temple of Herod,
became this magnificent,
very elaborate structure.
It was not just the temple,
but it had courts and other structures.
It was incredibly impressive.
And what was believed is that God dwelt in the temple,
in the Holy of Holies.
That temple was central to Jewish worship in Jesus' day.
And Jews believed that the temple
was the dwelling place of God.
And so the temple is the backdrop of this account,
the dwelling place of God.
So now we move from the temple,
the backdrop, to the whip.
In verses 13 and 17,
Jesus comes into,
not just Jerusalem,
but into the temple.
You see in verse 14,
in the temple,
he found those who were selling oxen.
What I want you to see in this little section
is that Jesus finds something,
and then he makes something,
and then he says something.
What does he find?
In verse 14,
he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons
and the money changers sitting there.
Like, what's the big deal?
It's where he found it.
He found, basically,
the first century Amazon.com
in the temple complex.
It'd be fine if it was outside of the temple complex,
but it was in the temple complex,
where God was to be worshipped.
And so the selling of these animals,
oxen, sheep, and pigeons,
they were animals used for sacrifice.
And he also finds money changers sitting at the tables.
These money changers had set up shop.
They had booths.
This was a marketplace.
Do you remember
why Jesus is there?
He had come to Jerusalem for the Passover.
You may be wondering,
why are all these animals and money changers
in the temple to begin with?
Well, remember,
this is the Passover.
And it was big business
for certain people in Jerusalem
because people would make,
Jews would make pilgrimage
into Jerusalem from all around.
And think about it.
I know,
isn't it difficult to travel with toddlers?
Just give me an amen.
Amen.
Could you imagine traveling
with oxen and sheep and pigeons?
That'd be really tough.
And so what pilgrims would do
is they would come to Jerusalem
and buy their animals
to sacrifice in Jerusalem.
But the other problem that raises
is that they were coming with money
from the regions that they dwelt in.
And so they needed to exchange money
in order to get into the temple currency
in order to buy these animals to sacrifice.
And so you have money changers
who are making a buck
by exchanging money
from these different regions
into temple currency.
And so it's a whole operation.
And don't forget,
this city swells
to a quarter of a million people
during the Passover.
This is big business.
So this is what Jesus finds.
Those making pilgrimage
are buying animals
and needing to exchange currency
in order for them to
offer their Passover sacrifice.
How does Jesus respond?
He makes something.
And making a whip of cords,
he drove them all out of the temple
with the sheep and oxen
and he poured out the coins
of the money changers
and overturned the tables.
Verse 15.
A whip of cords.
He's using the whip
to drive out
all of those people
who are selling,
but he's also using the whip
to drive out oxen and sheep.
Have you ever tried
to push an ox before?
The whip is very helpful.
And so he is using the whip
in order to clear the temple,
to clear the temple courts
of what is happening.
And he doesn't stop
with clearing out
the oxen and the sheep.
He makes something else.
He makes an even bigger scene
is what he does.
He pours out the coins
of the money changers
and he overturns their tables.
Jesus isn't being nice.
This might be surprising to you.
This is more like anger.
This is more like being zealous.
Like he's saying,
this is not right.
This is wrong.
Maybe you're not used
to seeing Jesus this way.
Why is Jesus acting this way?
Well, he says so.
He explains to us
why he's doing this
in verse 16.
He says to those
who are selling the pigeons,
take these things away.
In the Michael J. Salvati
translation,
get out of here.
Get these things out of here.
And then he tells us why.
Do not make my father's house
a house of trade.
That's the reason.
Do not make my father's house
a house of trade.
You see,
these business people had
by their greed,
their desire to make up up,
but they had repurposed
the temple of God.
Instead of worshiping God
and praying to him,
it became a place
to line their pockets.
You see,
worship is about God,
not about us,
not about created things.
And so what Jesus does here
is he's very purposefully
in measured steps
clearing the temple
because he is jealous
for God's glory.
He's jealous that God
would be worshipped rightly.
This is a righteous zeal,
a righteous anger
in the Son of God.
Jesus is jealous for God
to be worshipped rightly.
And the disciples see that.
And it's not clear
whether they remember this
after he's been raised
from the dead
or they think about this
on the spot,
but we see in verse 17,
they remember what it was written
in Psalm 69, 9,
zeal for your house
will consume me.
This is,
it's a Psalm of David
and Jesus is David's
greater son.
And David in Psalm 69,
he is being ridiculed
and he's being scorned
because he takes God seriously.
He makes enemies
in Psalm 69.
And Jesus makes
some enemies here.
So what we have
with the whip,
this whole picture
in verses 13 through 17
is Jesus finding something,
making something,
and then saying something.
He is jealous
that God would be rightly worshipped,
which brings us
to the bombshell
in verses 18 through 22.
And in verses 18, 22,
we have a new set of characters
that come onto the scene.
So the Jews said to him,
now you might be thinking,
Jews, hold on a second.
Weren't all those people
in the temple
that Jesus kicked out,
weren't they all Jews?
They were Jews too.
These Jews are
a different set of Jews.
They are,
John uses this phrase,
by and large,
to describe
the Jewish religious authorities
in Jerusalem.
So these are the Jews
that Jesus is now talking to.
This is a group
that's representing
the Jewish establishment.
And they asked Jesus,
hey, what sign do you show us
for doing these things?
They're asking him,
on what basis,
what gives you the right
to do this?
They're asking for a sign.
You know,
when Moses before Pharaoh,
the staff,
became a snake,
serpent,
you remember that?
That's a sign.
I'm not sure if you know this,
but Isaiah walked around
naked for three years
as a sign.
Jeremiah wore an ox yoke
as a sign.
Hosea married a prostitute
as a sign.
It legitimized
that God's stamp
of approval
was on this prophet,
was on this representative
of his.
And so they're asking,
what's your sign?
They're not,
are you a Sagittarius?
Not that.
They're asking,
by what authority
are you doing this?
Are you legitimate?
And Jesus answers them.
He's like,
you want a sign?
And here comes,
here comes the bombshell.
He says in verse 19,
destroy this temple
and in three days
I will raise it up.
That's a theological
bombshell.
What Jesus is saying there
is incredibly profound.
He's not talking about
the temple of Herod
that's behind him,
while he's saying this.
He's referring to
another temple.
In fact,
in verse 20,
the Jews think that
he is speaking of
Herod's temple.
Look what they say.
The Jews said,
it has taken 46 years
to build this temple
and will you raise it up
in three days?
In other words,
wait, wait, wait, wait.
You're going to tear down
this temple
and rebuild it
in three days?
It's taken almost
50 years
to get this temple
to where it is right now.
It's all elaborate,
magnificent,
magnificent.
And so they're thinking
brick and mortar.
They're thinking
we worship God
in a place.
But that's not what
Jesus was talking about.
And in verse 21,
John tells us
what Jesus was referring to.
But he was speaking
about the temple
of his body.
Bombshell!
That same word
for temple
being referenced
to Jesus' body
was being referenced
for Herod's temple.
What Jesus is doing
is he's reclaiming
the temple.
He's saying
the temple
is no longer
this magnificent structure.
The temple
standing before you,
the temple of God,
God's dwelling place
is now a person.
In John 1.14,
we read,
the word
became flesh
and dwelt
among us
and tabernacled
among us.
And we beheld
his glory,
glory as of the one
and only of the Father,
full of grace
and truth,
full of steadfast love
and faithfulness.
You see,
he is the greater temple.
New and better.
This is a gospel bombshell
because he describes
the gospel
in a beautiful way.
He describes
his temple
being destroyed,
which is a reference
to his being put to death.
And then his being raised
in three days
is talking about
his bodily resurrection.
That's at the heart
of the gospel.
This is a gospel bombshell
that is saying,
no,
it's no longer
about gathering
to meet God
in that place.
It's about
worshiping God
in this person,
the person of Jesus Christ.
It's a theological bombshell.
After Jesus was raised
from the dead,
we see this in verse 22.
His disciples
remember this
particular episode,
this particular account.
They remember
that he said this
and they believe
the scripture.
They're talking about
Old Testament,
Old Testament prophecies
concerning the death
and resurrection
of the Messiah.
We find things like,
regarding the resurrection,
in Psalm 1610,
Psalm 2222,
Isaiah 5310.
These are all
kind of anticipations
of this one
who would come,
who would die
and be raised again.
But not just
the scriptures,
they see this
as fulfillment
of what Jesus said.
It's the sign
that has come true.
You want a sign?
You want to see a sign
that I have the right
to cleanse the temple,
to purify worship?
Here's the sign
that I am going to die
and be raised
on the third day.
Gospel bombshell.
He has the authority
to cleanse the temple
because he is
God's temple incarnate.
There's a new temple
in town.
His name
is Jesus.
There's the bombshell
and now we move
to the x-ray knowledge.
This is in 23-25.
Again,
this is the closing
of this account
and there's another reference
to Jerusalem
in verse 23
and the Passover feast.
But what this has all
now happened
with Jesus making
this bombshell claim
that there's another temple
in town,
an incarnate dwelling place
of God.
God is with us.
In verse 23,
we are told
that many saw.
Look at verse 23.
Now,
when he was in Jerusalem
and the Passover feast,
many believed in his name
when they saw the signs
that he was doing.
And so,
apparently at this time,
Jesus was performing
all sorts of different
kinds of signs.
at the end of John,
in John chapter 20,
verses 30 and 31,
John explicitly tells us
he didn't write
in this gospel
all the signs
that Jesus did.
He left a bunch out.
And so,
we can be assured
that there's other things
that Jesus did
and people are saying,
we believe in you,
Jesus.
We will follow you
wherever you go.
We'll make you
the king.
They are responding
to him.
They are accepting him.
They are embracing him.
And you would think
that this is a good thing
until you reach 24 and 25.
But Jesus,
on his part,
did not entrust himself
to them.
He was being embraced,
but he did not
embrace them back.
Because he knew
all people
and needed no one
to bear witness
about man,
for he himself
knew what was in man.
The key word
in verses 23,
24, and 25,
it's repeated,
one word repeated twice.
It's the word knew.
K-N-E-W.
Because he knew
all people,
verse 24,
and at the end
of verse 25,
for he himself
knew what was in man.
The knowledge
that's being talked about
is an X-ray knowledge.
Jesus knew
what was going on
in the inner workings
of the people
in Jerusalem
at that moment.
He's like,
you're not going
to get this by me.
I know what's going on.
I can see
into your hearts.
This is a divine knowledge.
This is the first
Samuel 16,
six and seven
kind of knowledge.
Do you remember
that word?
God sends Samuel
to Jesse's house
to anoint the next king.
And the first
son of Jesse
that comes out
is this guy,
six foot four.
He's got 2.0 BMI.
Good looking.
He's just oozing leadership.
Samuel's like,
surely,
here is God's anointed.
Look at him.
And God says to him,
no, no, no, no.
It's not,
it's not my anointed.
Where man looks
at the appearance,
God looks at the heart.
And what's being attributed
to Jesus right here
is that divine
x-ray knowledge
that he looks
at the heart.
Jeremiah 17, 9 says,
the heart is desperately wicked.
Who can understand it?
Jeremiah 17, 10 says,
the Lord searches the hearts.
He sees into us.
He's got x-ray
divine knowledge.
Here's what this means.
Jesus knows our hearts
right now.
Right now,
he knows your heart.
You can't hide
your inner thoughts,
your desires,
your motivations from him.
All eight plus billion people
on the earth
can't hide
what's going on
in their hearts
from him right now.
He knows what you prize.
He knows what you buy
and sell
and the courts
of your heart
to worship.
You see,
it was the sinfulness
within the hearts
of men and women
that caused
these buyers
and money exchangers
to repurpose
God's house
into a house of trade.
Our sinfulness
in our hearts
has the same effect.
we repurpose
created things
to take the place
and be worshipped
instead of God.
He knows what's in man.
He knows that we're idolaters.
21st century idolaters.
You see,
Jesus couldn't be manipulated.
He would not allow
what people
were saying
and thinking
and trying to get by him
and convince him of
and give him
all sorts of thumbs up.
He knew what was in a man.
He knew that these people
professing to believe
in his name
were not to be trusted.
This faith,
this belief
was not genuine.
He knows
what's in man.
He knows what's in us.
He knows
what are the inner workings
of your hearts
right now.
And this all took place
in the temple.
In Jerusalem.
During the Passover.
There's the temple.
There's the whip.
There's the bombshell.
And here is the x-ray vision.
You can't fool Jesus.
So what's the point?
What's the point
of these verses?
Well, we've already seen it.
It's the bombshell.
It's this unexpected
and disruptive announcement
to show us
that Jesus
is God's new
and better
dwelling place,
dwelling person
with his people,
which means
God in Christ
has provided for us
a new and better way
to worship him,
to relate to him,
to come into a relationship
with him.
It's new.
This bombshell
is Jesus saying,
I have come
to replace
that temple of Herod.
I have come
to replace
this brick
and mortar temple
with a
flesh and blood
temple.
God's dwelling place
incarnate.
So worship
is no longer
at a centralized
place,
brothers and sisters.
We no longer
need to make
pilgrimage
to Jerusalem
to worship
at a building
that's been
raised and burned.
We worship
a centralized
person
who is alive
and reigning
today.
The implication
is that the old
way of worshiping
has now been
made obsolete.
Jesus is God's
dwelling with us
now,
and it's taken
place
of the old
way.
In 70 AD,
the Romans,
they burned
and flattened
the temple
of Herod.
You know why
it doesn't really
matter to us?
Because our
identity
isn't in a
building.
Our identity
isn't in some
kind of brick
and mortar
structure.
We worship
a person,
not a place.
Because Jesus
died and was
raised,
we worship
a risen
Christ.
The dwelling
place of God
is with us.
It's a new
way,
and it's a
better way.
Now,
we can gather
as a church
wherever,
whenever,
and with
whoever.
Because Jesus
is the new
and better
temple,
do you know
that there
are millions
of churches
worldwide
that gather
in multiple
locations
to worship
Jesus?
Right now.
Do you know
that because Jesus
is a new
and better
temple on the
Lord's Day,
there are
brothers and
sisters
worshiping
God
for every
minute of
every hour
of this
24-hour
period we
call the
Lord's Day.
It's
nonstop
worship
among the
nations
around the
world.
Eric Tully
was part
of a
worship
service
that
probably
happened
four and
a half
hours ago,
five hours
ago in
Monrovia.
And then
there's been
worship all
around the
world.
It's a
better way
to worship
because Jesus
is the
new and
better
temple.
You don't
have to
become a
Jew in
order to
worship
God.
He has
millions of
church
congregations
all around
the world
that are
made up
of people
from all
sorts of
different
tribes and
tongues and
nations.
All these
Jews and
non-Jews,
Gentiles,
who have
come to
faith in
Jesus Christ.
You don't
need to
become a
Jew,
but you
do need
to trust
in the
one and
only Jesus.
You need
to believe
in him
alone for
your salvation.
You need
to put all
of your
chips by
faith onto
Jesus in
order to be
saved.
This is the
good news.
You see
that this
new temple,
he was
destroyed,
he died
and was
raised so
that you
could enter
a relationship,
an eternally
life-giving
relationship
with the
God of
the
universe.
It's
better.
More
people giving
more worship
to God.
And so the
point of
this passage
is to show
us that
Jesus is
God's new
and better
way of
dwelling,
of God
dwelling with
his people.
We have
unlimited
access.
In fact,
at the end
of our
Bibles,
in Revelation
chapter 21
verse 22,
the new
Jerusalem has
come down
and John
shows us
the same
writer of
Revelation
wrote this
gospel and
he shows us,
hey, hey,
by the way,
there's no
temple because
God is
there.
God,
our dwelling
place with
us.
So let's
apply this.
God,
so what?
What difference
does this
make?
Well, we
have a whole
new way of
worshiping.
Well, let me
just point to
three things
from this
passage that
may press
this truth
home.
Jesus has
x-ray
knowledge,
and he has
x-ray
knowledge of
your heart.
we saw
in verse 25
for he
himself
knows,
knew what
was in
man.
He knows
the inner
workings of
our hearts.
There's
nothing we
can hide
from him.
That was the
case in the
first century,
and it's the
case now in
the 21st
century.
He sees
all.
We see from
the book of
Revelation,
he has fire
eyes.
Jesus is
alive,
because he's
risen from
the dead,
he sees
all now.
He sees
you,
he sees
all of
you.
He even
sees what
you can't
see or
you don't
want to
see.
He sees
it all.
He sees
your heart.
And the
Bible,
time and
again,
describes the
heart as
the control
center of
your life.
And what
controls your
heart controls
your life.
You worship
from your
heart.
You worship
what you
treasure.
Does it
make any
difference to
you that
right now
you are
being watched
coram
deo,
before the
face of
God?
He has a
clear line of
sight into
you.
Does that
make any
difference to
you?
It should.
He knows
the depth
of your
sin.
But here's
the good
news.
He loves
you still.
He sees
you as
you are
and He
loves you
still.
So if
you're not
a Christian
in the
room,
He sees
your sin
and He's
done something
about it.
He gave
His life.
His temple
was destroyed
and He
raised it up
three days
later in
order for
you to
have all
of your
sins
forgiven
and to
come into
a relationship
with Him.
And if
you're a
Christian in
the room,
it's really
good news.
He loves
you.
He still
sees the
sin in
your heart.
He loves
you and
He wants
to do
something
about it.
He wants
to purify
your heart.
He wants
to make
you clean,
make you
holy because
He loves
you.
people.
So this
x-ray
knowledge of
Jesus,
it is as
true today
as it was
two millennia
ago.
The second
thing I want
you to
note is
not only
does Jesus
know your
heart,
x-ray
vision,
Jesus is
jealous for
your heart.
He's jealous
for what you
worship.
Just as
He found
when He
found
this
house of
God being
made into
a house
of trade
and He
was provoked
and cleansed
it.
He wants
to do the
same in
us because
He loves
us.
He wants
us to
share in
God's
holiness.
His
jealousy
seeks to
drive out
of your
heart and
life anything
that is
competing for
the worship
of God.
He wants
to release
you from
that.
And if
He's willing
to make
a whip,
and if
that's any
indicator,
He is
willing to
use discomfort,
pain,
to be stern,
even to be
angry from
time to
time,
out of
love,
in order
to rid
us of
the sin
that holds
us captive
so easily.
He's jealous
for your
heart's
worship.
He wants
you to
worship God.
In God's
plan of
salvation,
God is
gathering
worshipers
for Himself
from all
the peoples
of the
world,
a new
people.
It's called
the church
who were
once dead
living in
darkness,
and then
by God's
grace,
through the
blood of
Jesus,
He makes
them alive
to live
in the
light.
And so
when He
does that,
He is
seeking to
make us
holy as
He is
holy in
a far
better way.
He changes
our hearts.
Christ.
So if
you're a
non-Christian
in the
room,
Jesus
doesn't
want just
part of
you.
He died
and was
raised for
all of
you.
That all
of you
would love
the Lord
your God
with all
of your
heart and
all of
your strength
and all
of your
might.
So if
you're a
non-Christian
thinking about
becoming a
Christian,
realize to
commit to
Jesus to
put all
your chips
in means
it's all
in.
You are
now going
to be
transformed
into a
living
sacrifice
for God.
And if
you're a
Christian,
can I
just urge
you,
would you
please stop
putting limits
on what
Jesus can
claim in
your life?
Stop
putting limits
on Him.
give Him
full
reign.
Give Him
full
reign.
Make us
holy.
The third
thing I want
you to see
is that
Jesus died
and was
raised to
purify your
heart,
to cleanse
your heart.
The pain
and the
violence
and the
anger
for your
sin that's
provoked
in God,
it was
poured out
in full
on Christ
on the
cross.
And so
when you
believe
in what
Jesus has
done for
you for
the very
first time,
here's how
God thinks
about it.
He thinks
about all
of your
sin placed
on Christ's
head and
all of His
wrath poured
out on
Christ so
that there's
no more
wrath.
You're
fully forgiven,
but it's
just half
of it.
The other
half is
God thinks
of Christ's
righteousness,
His holiness,
as being
credited to
you.
And now,
in His
eyes,
you are
legally
righteous
in His
sight.
That's what
God has
done for
you.
It's a
far better
way.
Jesus
died and
was raised
to make
you holy,
both legally
and
experientially.
Have
your way
with us,
O God.
It's all
by His
grace
to make
us holy.
holy.
You see,
the death
and resurrection
of God's
holy,
incarnate
temple
is what
makes us
holy.
You can't
make yourself
holy.
Only a
holy God
can.
And so,
when you
become a
Christian,
you become
part of
God's new
holy temple.
Christian,
you are
part of
God's
holy temple
now.
You are
so identified
with Christ
that you
that the
New Testament
will start
talking about
you as
being a
living stone
in God's
new temple,
Jesus,
indwelt by
the Holy
Spirit.
It's
extraordinary.
So,
we apply it
knowing that
Jesus has
x-ray knowledge
of our hearts
because He
loves us,
that He
has this
loving
jealousy for
our hearts
that we
would worship
God alone
with all
that we
are,
and that
Jesus,
His death
and His
resurrection
is what
accomplishes
our holiness
of heart.
It's all
by His
love.
John 2,
13-25,
Jesus drops
a theological
bombshell.
And for
the Jews
of His
day,
this cleansing
of the
temple was
just a
preview of
what would
happen in
40 years to
Herod's
temple.
It would be
raised and
burned because
of ultimately
their unbelief.
But for us
and the rest of
the world,
this bombshell is
good news.
Jesus is God's
new way of
dwelling with
us, a new
and better way
to worship.
He changes
our very hearts.
So now we
gather together
and we gather
together with
joy.
I mean, this is
a magnificent
building in one
sense, but this
is not the
temple of God.
Jesus is the
temple of God
and we have
been made a
part of Him.
So now we're
holy as He is
holy.
Let's pray
together.
God, thank
you so much
for Jesus.
Thank you
that we are
now a part
of something
new and
better and
there's no
going back.
Jesus, thank
you so much
for willingly
dying in our
place and
being raised
three days
later and
that you are
alive today.
We welcome,
we welcome
your x-ray
knowledge into
our hearts.
We welcome
your loving,
jealous work of
purifying us.
We delight in
that we stand
on the ground
of being
forgiven with
confidence
because of
your finished
work.
In your name
we pray,
amen.
Amen.