BECOMING FERVENT HEARTED WORHIPPERS
This morning I want to talk to you about becoming fervent hearted worshippers.
Fervent speaks to the emotions, to the passion, to the type of worship we want you to
have. Hearted speaks to the motive that we want you to worship with pure heart motives,
as you go into God’s presence and you seek Him. We want you to be fervent hearted
worshippers. I am talking about really, really, really living for the one who made you,
loving Him, living sold out for Jesus. I am not talking about candy cane Christianity,
God the glorified jukebox; I am talking about really living this thing called Christianity.
No more lukewarm, professional, watered down Christian living, but really living for
Him.
Now, you could be in here this morning and you may not even be a Christian, you
don’t even go to church, and you may think why in the world would I want to live for
God? Well, it is because He hardwired you. He created you. He made you with an
intended purpose. And so what I am talking about this morning is giving your life over to
the one who made you, of living in passionate pursuit of God. And serving Him with all
of your heart, and making sure that you really genuinely want to know Him, and
preparing your heart to know Him.
We came to church this morning, but if I was to get an honest answer out of all of
us, how many of us really came expecting God to change our lives? Or did we just come
because that is what we do on Sundays. We wake up, we roll out of bed. And if it is not
raining we go to church. Right? Or if it is not too cold out we show up at church. And I
would ask, are you in this room this morning coming anticipating the Holy Spirit to work
powerfully in your life? That is what God wants to do.
And so at the beginning of this message let me just say this. Expect to be changed
this morning. Expect that God has something in store for you. Believe that He has
something for you to surrender to Him. Believe that He has peace to offer you. Believe
that He can meet you in this room and help you get through another week.
Become fervent hearted worshippers. We don’t even know what to do with
passion when we see it today. And frankly and sadly, it has become the norm to just be
lukewarm in the American culture. Go walk around your workplace and talk about how
madly in love with Jesus Christ you are and watch how many odd looks you get. But be
willing to shower praises on Jesus and looking for opportunities to magnify Him and
glorify Him. And remember that God wants us to have fervent hearts of worship.
We are continuing on in our series through the gospel of John called, ‘More Than
a Man.’ And if you will turn to the gospel of John we are going to come to the second
chapter where we are going to see a very interesting passage. So far in the gospel of
John, we have made it into part of Chapter 2, but we have seen that John started his letter
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off by saying that Jesus was more than a man, that the word became flesh, speaking of
Jesus, and dwelt among us.
And then we saw John the Baptist, who was the one who was to prepare the way
for Jesus’ ministry. When Jesus came on the scene John was like, aha, behold the Lamb
of God who takes away the sins of the world. He was speaking of Jesus, the one who
came into the world to take away our sins. So John points Him out. Then after Jesus is
pointed out and He starts His public ministry, He begins to build His disciples. He begins
doing some team building that we saw when He called Phillip and Nathanael, and James
and John.
And then last week we saw Jesus’ first miracle at Cana and Pastor Roland showed
you that this was Jesus’ first miracle. And at the end of the passage, Roland showed you
how they believed in Jesus. And you know that is why the gospel of John was written.
We learn in John 21 that it was written that we may believe in the Son of God, that we
may believe in the things that are written. And so at the end of His first miracle, it says
that they believed in Him in John Chapter 2 and verse 11.
And then today, at the end of today’s passage, you are going to see again that they
believed in Jesus. And so that is what this book is about, believing in Jesus. Do you
believe in Jesus this morning? I mean, do you really, really believe in Him, bigger than
just information in your head, but that is also in your heart? It has gotten on the inside
and it is changing you, it is doing something in you, it is making you want to surrender to
God. Do you really, really believe in Jesus? That is why the gospel of John was written,
so that we might believe in him. And what does it look like to believe in Him? It looks
like a fervent heart of worship, passionately pursuing at all costs, a God centered life.
That is what it looks like.
So we are going to come to this passage today and we are going to see Jesus
cleansing the temple. And I would like to ask you to stand with me as I read these few
short verses. In John Chapter 2, starting with verse 13, it says, “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 all out of the temple with the sheep and the
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 forty-six years to build this temple, and
will you 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
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said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.” You
may be seated.
Now before I delve into this passage, Matthew, Mark and Luke are known as the
what gospels? Synoptic gospels. So Matthew, Mark and Luke are the synoptic gospels,
meaning they are similar in content. There are four gospels, and the gospels are designed
to share the good news about Jesus. If you want to learn about Jesus’ life, go to Matthew,
Mark, Luke or John. But Matthew, Mark and Luke are the synoptic gospels. The
synoptic gospels talk about Jesus cleansing the temple, but it is at the end of His ministry.
The gospel of John talks about Jesus cleansing the temple here at the beginning of His
ministry.
Now what you have to ask in this moment is if there is one temple cleansing only,
then John is not trying to be chronological in showing this temple cleansing. Because
Matthew, Mark and Luke show the temple cleansing being at the end of His ministry and
John is doing it at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. But I believe that there were two
temple cleansings that we know of, and there could have been more. We know that Jesus
would have been in the temple when He was eight days old. Why? To be circumcised as
a Jewish male. We see Him in the temple at age twelve. And each year He would go
back to the temple for Passover. And then we even see Him in His ministry going to the
temple often, sharing the good news, reading the Bible as the great Rabbi would. And
sharing how He was the fulfilment of all Scripture.
Now what is important to understand is I believe there are two different temple
cleansings, because in the accounts that we see in John compared to Matthew, Mark and
Luke there are too many differences. But it is not unreasonable to think that Jesus, when
He showed up at the temple, that He would cleanse it, because He would be frustrated
with how they were worshipping God.
I am going to utilize John MacArthur’s words here to help explain this idea of two
temple cleansings. Listen to this statement. “As John recorded this cleansing of the
temple at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, the synoptic gospels record a temple cleansing
at the end of Jesus’ ministry, during the final Passover week before Jesus’ crucifixion.
The historical circumstances and literary context of the two temple cleansings differ so
widely that attempts to equate the two are unsuccessful. Furthermore, that two
cleansings occurred is entirely consistent with overall context of Jesus’ ministry. For the
Jewish nation as a whole never recognized Jesus’ authority as Messiah. Instead, they
rejected His message as well as His person, making such repeated cleansing of the
temple highly probable as well as necessary.”
So this sort of sets the context for me to develop this passage for you this
morning. I believe this is the first of at least two of Jesus’ temple cleansings. Now we
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have two recorded, but there may have been more. And so now pick up with me if you
will in verse 13, “The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to
Jerusalem.” Now where has Jesus just travelled from? In order to find out, you have to
interpret Scripture in light of Scripture. You have to interpret the text in light of the
context. So we rewind in our Bible, and go back to the preceding verse and it says in
verse 12 after the miracle in Cana, “Jesus went down to Capernaum.”
Okay, so last week as Pastor Roland talked about, Jesus performed a miracle.
And we know that He performed it in Cana in Galilee. Then it says in verse 12 that He
went to Capernaum, so now you come to verse 13 and it says that He went up to
Jerusalem. Now those of you that know your Bible maps real well, those of you that
have your Bible geography down, you are going to scratch your head and go, uh oh,
Bible contradiction. It says He went up to Jerusalem, but you can’t go up to Jerusalem
from Capernaum where He has just come from in verse 12. So do we have a Bible
contradiction, we have to ask that question.
(Shows a map on screen.) Here is Capernaum and here is the Sea of Galilee at the
top. It is that little sea of water there, and there is Capernaum at the top of the Sea of
Galilee. If you will come down or go south to the southwest tip next to Rome you see
Jerusalem. So that was His travel route. He would come down from Capernaum after
His ministry up there and He would come down to Jerusalem for Passover. And it says
He went up, but clearly it shows that He is coming down. So what do you do with it?
You have to understand that it was common for people in all directions to talk about
going up to Jerusalem because Jerusalem was ascended. It was on higher ground; it was
mountainous in its region. So it was like, going up to Jerusalem. It wasn’t saying He
was going south, down, but they were going up in elevation to Jerusalem.
Well, what was He going up to Jerusalem for? We learn in verse 13 that He was
going up for the Passover. Now, the Passover was something that every Jewish male
partook of at the age of twelve years old and up. So when you were parents and your
Jewish son turned twelve what would happen was each year he would go to Jerusalem for
this Passover. And the Passover would happen on Nisan on the fourteenth day. Now in
our calendar the fourteenth day of Nisan would be the latter part of March or the
beginning of April. That would be when that would be dated.
And so here is Jesus, He is showing up for Passover. And Passover, you will
remember, is what God set up as a yearly festival for the Jewish people to celebrate, to
commemorate God delivering Israel out of Egypt. You will remember that the Israelites
were in Egyptian bondage for four hundred years. God raised Moses up as a prophet to
deliver them. And he delivered them, the Red Sea parted and they went out of Egypt.
And there was a Passover.
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And remember how the Passover took place. In order for God to free them, they
needed to put blood on their doorposts. And they put blood on their doorposts so that the
death angel would pass over them and not strike dead their first born. So everyone that
did not have blood on their doorposts, all of them lost their first born sons. And that is
what you saw in the book of Exodus. It was a judgment on the nation for how they were
treating the Israelites and how they were acting. So that was Passover. And so every
year the Jewish community would come together to celebrate the fact that God delivered
them, that God freed them from Egyptian bondage, and that God was their rescuer.
In the same way it would be like communion for us. The Passover was
remembered with blood annually. We remember communion which represents the blood
of Jesus that was shed on behalf of our sins. And we know that here at church each week
we can take communion remembering that His blood delivered us from our sins.
Now, the Passover had to happen annually because it was a ceremony to
remember God, and we forget so easily. We do, and so there are these festivals in place
to ensure that people would not forget God’s great actions in their lives. And so Jesus
knew that they had lost the heart of worship, that they were no longer fervent in worship.
He shows up at this Passover and He realizes they are not getting it. They are missing it.
They have lost sight of what worship is all about. How quickly they have forgotten. It is
not enough to remember it once a year. They are still going astray.
And so pick up with me if you will in verse 14 and it says, “In the temple He
found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the moneychangers
sitting there.” Now the temple was first built by Solomon. They were in a tabernacle
before that during the ministry of Moses. And the tabernacle was a place where God’s
glory dwelt, God’s presence dwelt. And then Solomon constructed the first temple and
that was destroyed in six century BC by the Babylonians. And then later Zerubbabel
would begin to rebuild the temple. And then we see Herod in nineteen BC beginning to
construct his temple, the Herodian temple. (Shows picture). This is Herod’s temple and
this is what it looked like in the time of Christ.
It is important to understand when you see the word temple here, circle it, and
then if you were to go down to verse 20 and verse 21, you see the word temple again. In
English you see the word temple, but in Greek when you are reading verse 14 it would
have a different Greek word for this word temple, and then the word for temple in verse
20 and verse 21. In verse 20 and 21, you have the Greek word naos and then you have a
different Greek word used here. Well the Greek word that is used in verse 14 is referring
to the outer court of the temple. It is the court of the Gentiles. That is where the Gentiles
would come. It is like the big Nascar races. Everyone from everywhere comes to check
out the races. Well this is Passover and everyone is coming together and they are coming
in through the court of the Gentiles. That is where Jesus is. He is walking in the court
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and the Gentiles were not allowed to go into the inner courts. And this is where people
set up oxen and sheep and pigeons and money changers. And this is where they were
turning the temple into a place to make money, into a business.
So Jesus sees this. And we see in verse 14, “In the temple He found those who
were selling oxen and sheep.” Why were they selling oxen and sheep? Because at the
Passover people would be positioned in the outer court, and Jesus would see them in the
outer court area when He was in there. And while He was in there people would be
selling oxen and sheep to those who had travelled long and far and didn’t want to bring
their own oxen and sheep. So they could purchase an oxen or a sheep to offer as a
sacrifice to God at the time of Passover.
And then it says there were pigeons, or your Bible version may say doves. What
were they for? They were for women who needed to undergo rites of purification. Or for
people who had skin diseases. They would go and purchase pigeons in the court of the
Gentiles. And then there were these people who were changing out money in the temple.
Why? Because every year when you showed up what would happen is you would have
to pay a temple tax. And you could not pay with Imperial or Roman portrait money.
You couldn’t use Roman currency. So you would go to a money changer and you would
take your Roman currency and swap it out for Jewish currency so that you could proceed
to pay your taxes.
Do we have any Chuck E Cheese fans here? A couple. You know when you go
to Chuck E Cheese; Chuck doesn’t let you pay for a video game with a George
Washington. He doesn’t accept it. You take your George Washington into Chuck E
Cheese and you drop it into let’s say the greatest game of all time, Ms Pac Man. And
your George Washington is not going to work. Why? Because Chuck E Cheese doesn’t
accept American currency. He wants Chuck currency. So you have to go to the money
changing machine, drop some George Washington’s in there and out comes some
Chucks. And you take your golden Chucks and you go drop them in Ms Pac Man and
you can have a good time.
So the money changing was taking place at this time. Now, let me say this. All
in all there is nothing wrong with what is taking place here. It is the location that it is
taking place. They needed to buy oxen and sheep. They needed to buy pigeons. They
needed to pay the temple tax. The problem was they lost sight of what the temple was
for. They temple was the place to experience God. The temple was the place where God
showed up. The temple was the place where you brought your sacrifices to God. It was
the place where you got your heart right with God. That is what the temple was for.
And so let’s see how Jesus feels about this. Verse 15, “And making a whip of
cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen, and He poured out
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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.” That’s what He was mad about. They had taken the temple and made it a place
of trade. They were trying to make a buck. They were worried about getting their
wallets bigger, instead of their hearts bigger through worship.
And so here in this moment they had grown passionless, they had grown
comfortable. They had become indifferent in their faith. And they had become callous.
A callus is simply an accumulation of dead skin cells. And basically what happens is the
external skin of the callus loses its feeling. And that is what can happen to us in our
beliefs when we forget what Christianity is all about. We can become callous. We can
become numbed. We can listen to messages week after week and feel unaffected. Our
lives can just remain the same because a callus grows over our heart. Skin cells
accumulate and become comfortably numbed.
Now, Jesus goes and He takes some cords and He begins to make a whip. And
what He would have done is He would have taken about three strands of rope and He
would have begun to weave it together in order to make a whip. He would have had to
make a whip because there were no weapons allowed inside the temple. So He had to
make one. And when He made it, boy, did He show some serious frustration.
We have this unfair picture of Jesus. Yes, Jesus is full of grace, full of love, full
of mercy. And we often picture Him walking around in sandals, a white robe, long
feathery hair, speaking in a feminized voice saying it’s okay, please, it’s okay. We see
this soft emasculated Saviour. But He is the sovereign king of the universe. And He is
not walking around with His feathery hair blowing in the wind, trying not to step on
anyone’s toes. He is a righteous king who is holy. And in this moment what you are
seeing is God’s wrath in the flesh. Jesus is God incarnate. And you are seeing God’s
wrath in the flesh. And I don’t think Jesus was like, excuse me, money changer, do you
mind if I just kind of lightly turn this table over. No, I think He shouted, enough. You
guys are missing it. That’s what I think. I think He was very, very serious.
And we think there is something wrong with the idea. We perceive ourselves so
highly that we can’t imagine God daring to be upset with our sin. How can God dare be
upset with our lifestyle? But I will tell you why. Because He is our creator. He made us
to be in eternal community with Him, to live forever with Him. And we live our lives
independent of Him, not even thinking of Him. And He realizes this as He goes into the
temple and He sees what they are missing. He knows His Father, and He thinks they
have to be kidding me. Do you realize how incredibly blessed you are to be able to know
the Father? To be able to have a relationship with God? And you are sitting around
trying to make your wallets larger. And Jesus is just blown away in that moment. He is
absolutely dumbfounded.
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And then we see what it says about His disciples in verse 17, “His disciples
remembered that it was written, Zeal for your house will consume me.” You can just
see the disciples watching as this takes place, as they are following. And they are
probably like, isn’t there somewhere like in the book of Psalms, that says, zeal is going to
consume him. This is what is happening. Man, Jesus is mad, He is frustrated. He wants
us to worship Him with pure, fervent hearts.
And that is what Jesus was doing. He was fulfilling Psalms Chapter 69, verse 9
right here that says, “Zeal for my Father’s house will consume me.” We so easily fall
into people pleasing, don’t we? Jesus was much more concerned that His Father was
being offended by people abusing the temple than what people thought about Him by
pointing out their sins. Jesus went in and He cleaned house.
Let me ask you a question. If Jesus came into this room right now, what would
He clean out in your life? What would He ask you to give up, to surrender, to turn over
to Him? Is there something in your heart right now, some particular addiction, that you
know Jesus could take away if you turned it over to Him? Do you need to turn your time
over? Do you need to turn your ambitions over? What would Jesus want?
Some of you that are here and are in college as students, I am telling you that you
are in the battle of your lifetime. Temptations are so tough at this stage. I can remember
when I was in college before I went off to Bible College. I was at California State
University, and I would listen to my Christian music and I would think I am going to live
for Jesus at college, right? And then I would listen to Metallica and Guns and Roses and
I would think I am going to party my head off. And I felt so schizophrenia. I felt like
two people, because the Christian side of me wanted to shine for Jesus, but the worldly
side of me wanted to live like the world. But I want to tell you something. If you are a
college student here today, you are going to have to make a decision that you are going to
shine for Jesus on Davidson College campus, that you are going to live for Him, that you
are going to be a light shining out.
And then for those of you in your work places or in your homes or in your
neighbourhoods, it all falls back on us. We have to be fervent in our worship. It says
“Zeal for His Father’s house consumed Him.” I think of my parents when we were
younger and they bought this awful looking station wagon. I don’t even like the term
station wagon; they make me nervous. I have gotten over my hang-up with mini vans
and Lord knows we have ended up with one ourselves. And someday we will retire the
minivan. But the station wagon was pathetic. You remember those old long station
wagons that were about the length of a football field. And they had wooden panels along
the side. My parents bought one of those things and I don’t know what my dad was
doing. He was a business man, he was successful, but he was not vibe in it when he was
driving up to his job in this station wagon.
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But he had this station wagon, it was white with long wooden panels, and literally
it was like when car phones just started coming out, the car phone was as long as my
Tony Hawk’s skateboard. I mean it was so long it was ridiculous. And this car was an
embarrassment to me back then. And I hate to say it but this is how I was, they would be
driving and I would be like, just drop me off about two blocks before my destination. I
will be all right. I would make up where I was to meet so I didn’t have to be dropped off
in this station wagon. It was one of those ones where you ride in the back of the station
wagon waving at all the people.
Well, one day my dad took me and my buddy in this station wagon and dropped
us off at this lake. And we were going to go and just hang out. And he was going to
come back a few hours later and pick us up. And when my dad showed up to pick us up
in this station wagon, little did he expect us to be soaking wet. We had decided to jump
in the lake and have a good time playing. And then my dad saw that we were wet, and he
knew he had this new station wagon. And I remember the feeling as I watched him drive
away knowing that I had a long walk home that day. It was about a five mile walk, but
dad just drove off and we literally had to walk home.
What was my dad’s problem? What was his deal? Zeal for his station wagon
consumed him. There was a way to approach his station wagon and I was not allowed to
be inside that wagon if I was wet. And Jesus’ zeal for His Father’s house consumed Him
and there was a certain way to approach His Father’s house. There was a certain way to
be at His Father’s house. And they realized that Jesus was zealous. There was but one
thing that was the driving force of Jesus’ heart and that was to please the Father.
What is your driving force? If you are going to be a fervent hearted worshipper,
zeal for God’s glory must consume you. It must be what you are all about. When you
feel raging temptations to fall sexually, or to cave into pornography, or to have another
drink, or to smoke that next cigarette when you know you are supposed to quit, it means
that you must have such a hunger for God’s glory that you are consumed with it. Are you
consumed with a holy ambition to live for God’s glory? That is a mark of someone who
is a fervent hearted worshipper. They are not people pleasers, they are God pleasers.
They are zealous. They chase and pursue the heart of God.
We see how the disciples responded. They said prophecy is fulfilled. But how do
the Jews respond? Verse 18, “So the Jews said to Him, What sign do you show us for
doing these things?” They are thinking who do you think you are? They can’t believe
it. They equally match Him in being astounded. Jesus is astounded that they are missing
the whole point of worship, and they are equally astounded going who do you think you
are coming into this temple and causing this kind of a mess? And what they ask for is a
sign and that is because the Jews notoriously ask for a sign.
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Circle the word sign, and just to give you a little helpful tip for interpretation of
your Bible, to help you unlock it, when you see the words ‘sign, wonder or miracle’ they
are used synonymously. So what they are asking for was a miracle to prove that He had
the authority to do this. And so when you see ‘let me see a wonder,’ what they are saying
is let me see a miracle to prove that you have the authority to do this. So they were
saying, man, if you can do this, the only way you are getting yourself out of this mess is
you better do some miracle right now or you have really crossed the line.
So what does Jesus do? How does Jesus respond? I always get excited for those
moments just to hear what Jesus has to say. So let’s look at what He says in verse 19.
“Jesus answered them, Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” This is
just like Jesus, and I love this about Him, because He is always throwing people
curveballs in His statements. They are wanting to see a miracle and He says, “Destroy
this temple and in three days I will raise it up.”
Now, what is going on here? Well, let’s keep reading, verse 20, “The Jews said,
It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?”
So they are looking at the temple that we saw at the beginning. And Jesus is standing in
the court and He says, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” And
they are thinking that this man is completely insane. He has really lost it. He did not
give any credibility with His statement; rather He confused them even more. They
thought Jesus was a nutcase. They said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this
temple.”
Now it is important to understand that this temple was still under construction. It
wasn’t completed. It started to be built in 19 BC under King Herod the Great, and it
wasn’t completed until 13AD with Herod Agrippa. So about thirty years after Jesus died,
this temple was completed. So when they are saying it has taken forty-six years to build
this, what they mean is it has taken this many years just to build what is here so far.
What has been built so far has taken forty-six years, and you are going to destroy this and
in three days raise it up?
Verse 21, “But He was speaking about the temple of His body.” There is a lot of
prophecy that is coming together in this one moment. In fact there are three prophecies
that are coming together here in this moment. Jesus says, “Destroy this temple,” but He
is not speaking as they think about the temple building, but rather about His body. But
there is double meaning because He did prophesy that that building would be destroyed,
and in 70 AD, it was destroyed by Rome. They destroyed the temple and the Jews have
never had a temple since. It was destroyed where the temple sacrificial system came to
an end as we know it. So in one sense Jesus foreshadowed that the temple would be
destroyed. And the temple will be raised up in the end times again, the material temple.
But in another sense there is a spiritual truth, “Destroy this temple,” meaning His body.
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Look with me if you will at Matthew Chapter 12 and verse 6. “I tell you
something greater than the temple is here.” What is He talking about? Himself.
“Something greater than the temple is here.” He is talking about himself. So “Destroy
this temple,” He is saying they are going to destroy this temple that they come to yearly
for worship and they are also going to destroy His temple, His body, because He is going
to die for the sins of the world. He is saying He is going to lay His life down, He is going
to die, and you are going to destroy His body. But guess what? Prophecy number three –
He is going to raise it up again. He is going to come back to life. The physical temple,
yes, it is going to be destroyed, and in 70 AD it was. But they are going to destroy His
body, they are going to kill Him, but He is going to raise it up again.
And so we see all of this prophecy coming together. And it says in verse 22,
“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 spoke.” They
believed. What Jesus wanted to say on that day when He came into that temple was that
the sacrificial system as they knew it was coming to an end. He was the ultimate temple
and He came to replace the temple. He was the replacement of this temple and if you
want to get to God, you have to get to God through Him. He was the temple. You are
not going to go through a high priest, He was the high priest. He was the fulfilment.
And when we become part of the body of Christ, we are the temple. We are
going to get to this next passage in a few weeks but right now if you will look with me in
John Chapter 4 and verse 23 we will see that Jesus is meeting with the woman at the well.
And as He meets with the woman at the well, He helps her to understand a little bit about
what worship is going to look like. It says, “But the hour is coming and now is here
when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is
seeking such people to worship Him.” Do you see what Jesus is doing here? Jesus is
the way we experience worship. Worship is through Him. Worship is no longer going to
be about a building, it is about the person. Worship is no longer going to be about a
location, it is going to be about a God who is with us everywhere we go.
And that is what Jesus is doing here. And He is coming in and saying you guys
are missing it. You have lost sight of what worship is all about. Now, you have to ask
this question. If Jesus is turning tables over and is frustrated that they are missing the
point of worship in the temple back then, how much more would He be frustrated when
He, the final temple, has laid down His life, rose from the grave, and now we can worship
Him from anywhere, anytime, anyplace, and we still miss it?
This passage is an invitation to worship. It is an invitation to come back to what
worship is all about. And as the worship team comes up here to get us ready to meet
God, I want to ask you, have you trusted that Jesus Christ died for you? He laid down
His life, the temple was destroyed, and His body was destroyed. Why? So that we could
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be cleaned up. The only way that we could be cleaned up is for Him to die for our sins.
And He died for our sins on a cross and three days later He rose from the grave.
And I would ask you. Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus? Have you
met Jesus? You come to God through Jesus. You come to Him through believing in His
death, burial and resurrection. And then if you are a Christian, what would Jesus want to
say to you right now? Where would He want you to clean your life up, to surrender to
Him?
Now let me say this in conclusion. This passage is so rich with grace. Believe it
or not you are seeing God’s wrath in the flesh. You say I see Him flipping tables and
getting mad, I don’t see grace. But He still says in spite of everything you are doing that
He is going to die for you. He is still going to die because He loves us. And isn’t that an
amazing Saviour? We blow it over and over and over and over again, and He still lays
His life down for us. Why? Because His grace is unexplainable.
And if you are in this room today, what would really move your heart to be
fervent in worship? Well, the Bible says that God’s kindness leads us to repentance. It
would be recognition of His grace, the fact that He loves you so much, that in spite of
everything you have ever done wrong, and yes, it frustrates Him and yes, He had to die,
but He still did it loving you unconditionally. And he invites you to experience
forgiveness. And when you believe in Jesus Christ and ask Him to forgive you of your
sins, then you can experience a personal relationship and give Him a fervent heart of
worship.
Let’s pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word. My prayer right now,
God, is that you would work in the lives of everyone in this room. With this many people
there is no doubt someone in here does not know you. There could be people in here that
profess to know you but their hearts have never really been deeply changed. And so,
Lord, I just want to say that if there is anyone in this room right now and they want to get
saved, they want to give their life to you, the first act of fervent hearted worship is to
acknowledge the death of your son, Jesus Christ on the cross.
So if you are here and you want to get saved, you want to be forgiven of your
sins, you want your guilt gone, you want to experience God’s grace, you want to know
Jesus personally, then I want you to pray in the quietness of your heart after me.
Dear Jesus, I am a sinner. I have made a lot of mistakes and made a mess of my
life. But I believe that you came to clean that mess up. I believe that you died on a cross
for me and rose from the grave. And right here, right now, today, I give you my life. Be
my Saviour, be my Lord. I trust you by faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
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And if you are out here and you know that you need to repent, you know you need
to really quit playing Christian games, you know you need to quit teasing God, then live
for Him. He died and spilled His blood for you. The least you can do for the one who
died for you is live for Him. Would you live for the one who died for you right now?
Christian, would you say yes to Jesus. I am going to live for you right now. I am going
to really do it, right here, right now.
Just say: Jesus, please come and help me. I surrender my heart. I surrender my
all. And I worship you right here and right now. I love you Jesus. In your name I pray.
Amen.
The preceding transcript was completed using raw audio recordings. As much as possible, it includes the actual
words of the message with minor grammatical changes and editorial clarifications to provide context. Hebrew
and Greek words are spelled using Google Translator and the actual spelling may be different in some cases.
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