John 2:13-25 - ”A Change of Address” - Abundant Life (Gospel of John)

Just make the pastor sit down and then

you can go ahead. Okay, that's

>> our first scriptural reading is from the

book of Psalms chapter 66 verse 1 19.

Psalms 66:1

Save me, oh God, for the waters have

come up to my neck. I sink in deep mile

where there is no foothold. I have come

into deep waters and the flood sweeps

over me. I am weary with my crying out.

My throat is parched. My eyes grow dim

with waiting for my God.

More in number than the hairs of my head

are those who hate me without cause.

Mighty are those who would destroy me,

those who attack me with lies. What I

did not steal must I now restore. Oh

God, you know my folly. The wrongs I

have done are not hidden from you.

Let not those who hope in you be put to

shame through me. Oh Lord God of hosts,

let not those who seek you be brought to

dishonor though thou me,

oh God of Israel, for it is for your

sake that I have borne reproach, that

dishonor has covered my face. I have

become a stranger to my brothers and

alien to my mother's sons. For zeal for

your house has consumed me and the

reproaches of those who reproach you

have fallen on me.

Our second reading is from the book of

John chapter 2 verses 13 to 25. The

John 2:13–25

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 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 signs do you

show us for doing these things?" Jesus

answered them, "Destroy this temple, and

in 3 days I will raise it up."

The Jews then said, "It has taken 46

years to build this temple, and will you

raise it up in 3 days?" But he was

speaking about the temple of his body.

When therefore he was raised from the

dead, his disciples rem remembered that

he had said this and they believed the

scripture and the word that Jesus had

spoken. 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 knew what was

in man. This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

>> All right. So we get to another text

which we think we all know, but I'm

going to let you know. It's another one

of those texts that has more. It's not

that you don't know. you know, like me a

certain amount and then you dig deeper

and you go, "Oh, there's a lot more to

know." This is one of those ones. It's

the cleansing of the temple. How many of

you heard of the cleansing of the temple

before? Yeah. See, so most people have

heard it, understand it. Um, it's trying

to figure out why and how do we apply it

today? That's the trick. So, what I'm

going to do, well, what I did is I

decided to look at crazy megaurch

services.

I spent

a whole evening on Instagram and

Facebook scrolling.

I I'm gonna tell you how crazy my

algorithm is right now. Um, and there

are some crazy church services down in

the States, but this was my favorite.

It's Christmas time and they are

levitating a drummer

down into the midst. Oh, there's a

better picture here. Him and his three

other drummers. and they're coming in to

uh inaugurate Jesus coming with the

flood lights and the uh urban language

behind them. Uh this church apparently

sat 16,000 people. Um and they even

brought in every different type of

animal that could be brought in.

That's something else, isn't it?

Now, if you have ADHD like me, how ADHD,

how would you focus on one thing?

I would be watching everything and

nothing. You know what I mean?

But the the thing about that stands out

to me is I've been to a few um Broadway

type shows and that's Broadway type

show, right? We all agree. So, so can I

ask you guys a question? What do you

think Jesus thinks of that?

Like honestly like like do you think

Jesus is like right on we did it better

than Broadway?

Like like I you have to ask yourself

this question and and what is it saying

to us

really? What does this kind of stuff say

to us? Because I think actually this is

the question of the cleansing of the

temple.

What does it say to the world? What does

what we're doing here in our church or

in this case in the temple say about us?

Well, as we see Jesus wasn't very

impressed back then. I wonder if he

would be today.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your

amazing grace to us. Thank you that you

have breathed life upon us.

We pray you open our eyes and our ears

so that we may understand you more and

that we can uh worship you right

in Jesus' name. Amen.

Now we got to take ourselves away from

that wonderful drum church way back into

a time there was a temple built in

Jerusalem. One of the seventh wonders of

the ancient world. this amazing temple

built forever. It was meant to be the

place, the location of Israel. And many

of them believed the place where God

would send his Messiah who would rule

over all the Gentiles. It was a scene of

everything political and religious. It

was all in one. It was like taking the

Vatican and the White House and shoving

it into one. Except those are two

different politics. But now you get the

point.

This is the world they lived in. And the

prophets have been speaking about this

question. And they definitely said there

we it will be a day that

the Messiah will come. Malachi, behold,

I send my messenger and he will prepare

a way before me. We already know that's

John. And the Lord whom you seek will

suddenly come into his temple. And the

messenger of the covenant in which you

delight, behold, he is coming, says the

Lord of hosts.

So this time will happen that was

predicted that at some point the Lord,

he says, which by the way means God, but

they interpreted as the Messiah,

would come into this temple. And then

this section right after this, but who

will be able to stand? There's this

question that's left.

Who's doing it right? Who's doing it

holy? Well, because that question hangs

out in Malachi.

Jesus is not the only one that's

critiquing the temple before he comes in

there. There were the Essenes. We we

read their Dead Sea Scrolls. They

actually called the temple the temple of

Satan. There were all kinds of groups

that were suspicious. I mean, it was

made by Herod the the Moabitete.

I mean, it was there was so many things

that had to be wrong. And he Jesus

wasn't the first one to notice that they

aren't doing things right, that they're

corrupt. But Jesus, as far as we know,

is the first one that did something.

That's the big difference. So already

the temple is under great pressure. So

much pressure that there had to be a law

that said if you even dare to threaten

the temple, you'd lose your life. It was

a capital offense. That's why they

accused Jesus of saying, "I will tear

this temple down."

So again, I want you to remember these

aren't a bunch of Jewish people going,

"Oh, it's so pretty." And then this mean

Jesus came in. Many of them would have

seen it as a righteous act.

So let's look at what happened.

The Passover of the Jews was at hand.

Now, what does that mean? Why does he

add that in? Well, Passover represents

what? The deliverance out of Egypt.

Passover was the biggest weekend where

they were waiting for God to deliver

them. And that's why the temple became

packed. The city apparently ballooned to

a million people during that time. So

you can imagine this is a crazy packed

time as it's kind of like Disneyland but

on steroids.

Right. Right. Is that not that's a

terrible actually

example.

A big event you go to.

And here he is. And this is probably why

Jesus got away with a lot of what he

did. There's a lot of people. And the

Jews was at hand. And Jesus went up to

Jerusalem. In the temple, he found those

who were selling the oxen, the sheep,

and the pigeons. That's not all they

sold. Why did he pick three?

Cuz three is an important number. Don't

ever forget that. And the and the

complete amount. And the money changers

sitting there.

And making a whip accords, he drove them

all out of the temple with the sheep and

the oxen.

And he poured out the coins and the

money changers and overturned their

tables. And he told them to and he told

those who sold the pigeons, "Take these

things away."

Now, I always wondered why didn't he say

that to the sheep and the oxen guys.

Poor pigeon owners. Anyways,

he says, "Take these things away." And

here's your first critique. And it's

unlike the synoptic gospels. It's unlike

Mark, Luke, and Mark, Matthew, and Luke.

Mark, Matthew, and Luke also have a

cleansing of the temple. Okay? And it's

very different. In fact, I should

probably mention now there's some

question of whether there's two

cleansing of the temple because John has

it at the beginning of his ministry and

the synoptics have it at the end. And

the John's reasons, what people say to

him as to the why, the critique of Jesus

for doing this are different than this.

Is it possible there's two? It is

possible.

But I also want to remind you that this

ancient genre that you the chronology

did not matter. You could put the same

event earlier or later. They just didn't

care.

They also allowed you some artistic

permission as long as you said things to

maybe massage the incident that was

really happening in such a way to say

something about the person who was doing

it. in this case Jesus. Now you'll

remember the synoptics. He says, "Why

are you doing this? This is my father's

house, a house of prayer." Remember

that.

This was clearly about the fact that the

Gentiles were not being allowed to

worship God. It was a critique of their

hearts towards Israel. But this is not

said here. John, whether it's the first

one or a second one,

wants to make a point that there's

another reason

why the temple and what Jesus does is ma

is just and made holy.

And what he says is, "Do not take my

father's house a house of trade." So,

he's not talking about prayer here, and

he's probably not talking about the

Gentiles being unable to use this space.

He's talking about the commercialization

of religion.

And that's a big problem. Now, I want

you to understand now that the problem

the Jews had with the temple is they

actually weren't doing what God had told

them to do with the temple. What they

had done is they had begun to make their

temple look like the temples of the

world. Let me explain. If you went into

the temple of Isis, okay, let's just use

that. You would bring in your food stuff

to sacrifice. You would worship. You

would exchange coins, you would give it.

And what would ultimately happen is you

were making a contractual and agreement

with the god. And by providing the food,

the money or whatever you are writing up

to god. There's no relationship here.

You are providing this. It's not worship

as we understand it. And you're

providing and you're paying for God's

protection. And so once you had given

your stuff, then God, if he thought it

was the gods or whatever, thought it was

good enough, he would say, "Okay, I'm

going to let it rain on your lands and

I'm going to protect you from your

enemies." That's how they worshiped.

When he creates this contractual

language, of course, it was all around

trade.

So when Jesus comes in and says, "Take

these things away. Do not make my

father's house a house of trade." What

he's saying right away is the critique

is you're looking like the pagans and

you're creating a worship service that

makes it look like we have a contractual

god that somehow we have to provide for

the his his uh um provision of safety,

his his blessing upon our nation and

ultimately the blessing of delivering us

from the Romans.

But that is never once why the temple

cult existed.

In fact, if you read the Old Testament,

then the prophets are pretty critical of

the sacrificial system. They are very

much saying this is not the end goal.

It's always pointing to something else.

And all of this idea of any contract

when they start contractualizing with

him, he starts talking them about being

like pagans.

Well, here's the problem. They're acting

like the pagans. They're selling

religion

for an end.

Well, and the promise in the Old

Testament is there would be a day this

would end. Okay? And we have to go back

to Zachchariah.

And every pot in Jerusalem and Judah

shall be holy to the Lord of hosts, so

that all who sacrifice may come and take

of them and boil the meat of the

sacrifice in them. And there shall no

longer be a

traitor in the house of the Lord of

hosts on that day. This is never the

ultimate end then was not a place of

contracts.

It was not commercial. Good thing

there's no churches in the west that are

commercial. Eh,

[sighs]

good thing there's no people on TV

saying, "If you give me 50 bucks, you're

going to get healed."

I think I got a pretty good southern

accent.

So, we know that that's the critique in

John's gospel. I'm not saying that the

uh the synoptics are wrong, but this we

have to focus on what John's saying. And

John's critique is against this style of

worship. And then the other part is in

the synoptics it says that they finally

decided to kill him after he had

cleansed the temple.

Here it doesn't say that. Oh, but it

does. This is the beauty of John's

writing.

He actually does say the same thing. But

you have to understand what this next

section means. It says, "His disciples

remembered that it was written," zeal

for your house will consume me. That's

out of Psalm 69. Now, what they quoted

an Old Testament text, they didn't have

a lot of parchment. They didn't quote

the whole section. They quoted the one

important part. And they assumed you

would either go back if you didn't know

it or if you noted it, you reflected on

what he was quoting. This particular

psalm talks about a man of God in the

temple who's being persecuted exactly

for being faithful to Yahweh. And this

word consume means

to tear apart.

Okay. So now with that in mind, look at

what the psalmist says and apply this to

Jesus. For it is for your sake that I

have borne reproach, meaning God in the

temple. That dishonor has covered my

face. I have become a stranger to my

brothers, an alien to my mother's sons.

And by the way, this all happened

for your for zeal of your house. And

notice the difference. It says has

consumed me. It's in the past tense for

the psalmist. In other words, this zeal

has consumed me. That's why I'm where

I'm at. In the other one it says will

consume me because he's not yet being

persecuted. Do you notice that? For zeal

in my house has consumed me and the

reproaches of those who have reproach

and the reproaches of those who reproach

you have fallen on me. So right there we

see in Psalm 69, it is this love of

holiness, truth, and justice that is

cleansing the temple that is going to

ultimately have the persecution upon

himself. Just like the synoptics say,

it's going to lead to his death. Do you

see that? They just do it a different

way.

All right.

So now they come and they ask him a

question. And one thing you love about

Jesus and these uh interlockers is they

are kind of dumb. They for people who

actually if you read Jewish literature

back then they could understand a

metaphor believe it or not they could

understand that not everyone was talking

literally all the time but not this

time. So the Jews said to him what sign

are you going to show us do for doing

these things? Showing signs is never a

good thing in John's gospel. You know,

if he just showed himself to me, I'd

believe. John's gospel says, "No, you

wouldn't."

Jesus answered them, "Destroy this

temple. In 3 days, I will raise it up."

Now, it says, "You destroy this temple."

It doesn't say, "I destroy this temple."

You can see why he was they called them

a liar when they said he said he would

destroy the temple cuz that was a

capital offense. He says, "You destroy

this temple and in 3 days I will raise

it up." Here's the irony of it all.

Guess who will destroy the temple?

The Pharisees, the Sadducees, the

Ninthmen. They actually destroy this

temple in 70 AD. They're the ones that

should have been put to death because

they're the ones who destroy it by

acting the way they do. And the Romans

come in and wipe it out just as Jesus

promised.

Destroy this temple in 3 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."

You're going to start seeing this with

the leadership of Israel. They do not

understand. And yet, they're supposed to

be leading Israel. Do remember when

Nicodemus comes and he says, "You must

be born again." And what does Nicodemus

say? How can I go back in my mother's

womb?

They can't help themselves. They get

stuck in this loop. When you read Jesus,

you have to understand he's talking

about something far deeper. That's a

hint to how we should read our

scriptures. Be aware that not everything

is literal.

And I'll raise it up in three days. But

he was speaking of the temple of his

body. Now, nobody thought like this.

Nobody in that world thought like this.

You see they understood that you all

every every religion no religion thought

different that every place had a place

where you could come together the temple

of the god or goddess this god or

goddess oversaw the land including

Israel

and you would when you got there on

certain holy days and festivals you

might meet the presence of the god you

might meet god that's what they believed

and what Jesus is saying here is so

radical it had never been heard of

before He's saying that that temple,

that place where heaven and earth meets,

that place where you meet God is now

going to be my body.

What that means

is God is no longer stuck in one place.

Every other time you had to travel and

we still do it, don't we? Mecca, the

Vatican, you can think of I don't know

depress Presbyterians have a place they

go. Is there like a John Knox church

somewhere? I don't know.

a a holy place. I don't know. Bo Robbie,

maybe Robbie Burns house or something.

Presbyterians get that joke.

But he was speaking of the temple of his

body. When therefore he was raised from

the dead, his disciples remembered that

he said this. Notice something about

this, and it's something that should

encourage all of us. The disciples the

whole time they're hanging out with

Jesus one-on-one and he's telling them

things don't get him at all.

It actually says they do not understand

Jesus until the Holy Spirit falls.

That's some good news when you're having

a bad day and you're going, "What?"

Right? You're in good hands. You're

being like Peter. Wasn't there a song

about that? And they believed the

scripture that he had said this. And

they believed the scripture. This is in

the singular. What scripture do you

think they're talking about?

I don't know. I'm going to guess Psalm

69.

Maybe that this was all part of the

plan. I'm not sure.

And but more importantly, and the word

that Jesus had spoken that this was

always going to happen. They But notice

they believed it after the resurrection.

None of them believed Jesus before the

resurrection.

I to be honest with you, I'm a bit of a

literal guy myself when I'm hanging out

with my friends. And if my friend walked

up to GM place in Vancouver and said,

"I'm going to knock every every

somebody's going to knock every stone

off there or I'm going to knock every

stone off there and in 3 days it's going

to be built up again." I'd think he was

a I would, right? So, let's have

a little grace.

Actually, I'm just told myself I was a

Um

I'm trying to trying to understand help

you understand that it you understand

they why they didn't believe.

Now when he was in Jerusalem at the

Passover feast many believed in his name

when they saw the signs that he was

doing. Remember what I'm going to say

signs like the what signs are the power

of God the healings the the all of the

great things the water to wine are not

the things that lead to faith.

Because look what he says after that.

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. He knew what's in our hearts.

He did not trust us. They were excited.

They had faith. They followed him. But

what kind of faith do you see? How much

of their hearts were warped in it? I

can't help but think when he feeds the

5000 and then they grab him and try and

make him king by force. They believed in

him, but they believed with him through

their lens

for he knew what was in a man. Am I

echoing?

I think I'm echoing Pete.

All right, I'll try and stop.

He knows what's in a man and it's not

good. So, I'm going to say one thing

first before we go on.

There is only one hero in the gospel

stories. Only one.

And if somebody tells you, "Well, Peter

was a hero cuz he walked on water." Just

say to them, "Yeah, um, he was an idol

worshipper.

He was only gods walk on waters."

There are no heroes

except Jesus Christ. And he has come and

he has said something here that's going

to transform

the whole game. And here what he does in

this little cleansing makes a comment

about religion.

Okay.

He judges religion.

Now you say, "What do you mean he judges

religion?" Religion is humans attempts

to satisfy God.

You hear that? It's humans attempts to

get ourselves right with God in and of

ourselves. The sacrificial system was

given to them so that they could have

their sins forgiven, that the nation

could have its sins forgiven. And here

was the problem. Every time he g you

give a system to a group of human

beings, they warp it and they make it

evil.

Should we be surprised that there are

mega churches that are out making

millions of dollars playing drums and

having people floating from the earth?

No. Because that's religion.

Religion is anytime we try and do

what God can only do.

Is this then says Lesni Nubicanin a kind

of manif me M me M me M me M me M me M

me M me M me M me M messianic manifesto

in action. It is difficult to interpret

it otherwise for it seems to announce

not just a judgment upon corrupt and

dishonest religion but a judgment upon

the whole apparatus of of organized

religion at least in this form.

When he went in there, they had set up a

structure and people were making money.

They thought they were doing good

because they were being faithful to God

as they understood it, right? But it was

against what God had shown them in the

Old Testament. And when he went in

there, when he brings his whips, he's

not just cleansing a few animals out.

He's saying this place of worship is

over.

This coming to one place to meet God is

done.

Because what you do is you make it like

the world.

The temple in Jerusalem did not look

seriously much different than the temple

of Mars in Rome.

They both brought their money. They both

brought their sacrifices and they want

something out it and did business deals

were done.

By the way, if you're in a religious

system that says if you give, you'll be

protected,

go right away and say, "Oh, thank

goodness. I've become a pagan."

That is direct paganism.

Now, it'd be easier for me to take on

the prosperity gospel. This is, by the

way, I often I've never heard a

prosperity gospel preach this,

but that's not our problem. Our problem

is we are tempted into religion too.

We're tempted to believe that God is in

one spot and we have to do us things a

certain way or we will not appease him.

We still get caught in that same idea

that unless I act out a certain set of

ways, he won't like me. Right?

Well,

here's the truth. We don't need a good

system.

We don't need a good system. And even if

it was a good system, our hard hearts

would make it a bad system.

You know who we need?

Jesus Christ.

And that's what's being said here. God

entered the temple, didn't he?

And he cleansed it out because he was

trying to say something about human-

centered religion.

I love John Sto. It is not the

uniqueness of Christianity as a system

that we defend but the uniqueness of

Christ.

So because in no other person but in

Jesus of Nazareth did God first become

human in his birth, then bear our sins

in his death, then conquer death in his

resurrection, and then enter his people

by his spirit. He is uniquely able to

save sinners. No one else has these

qualifications and no religion system

can hold that because that's held by a

person.

So what does that mean for us? He then

is the new temple.

We can go nowhere else and find Jesus.

No other religion. Do you hear me? And

find God.

We must come to Jesus Christ. And he is

the new temple. Why do we know this?

Because the old temples is where heaven

and earth met. Well, upon Jesus, the

spirit came and it's the place where

heaven and earth meets.

But it also has significant

significant practical change. And this

is unbelievable that you guys, we are

around this idea because we've lived in

a Christian culture that you can go to

your bedroom and pray that you can have

these moments together as a family and

have a service and God could be there.

That was not how they looked at it in

the ancient world.

When Jesus did that, he moved the temple

out from a building into the world.

What a radical transformation that was.

He said, like he had said before, I am

not going to live with h the houses

humans make. Well, he made a point this

time. I'm going out because guess what

this also means? It's not just the

Jewish God.

It is the God for the world. and I'm

going to walk and get my feet moving and

take the temple out.

But today in the New Testament, says the

great Martin Luther, God has established

another temple for his residence. The

previous humanity of our Lord Jesus

Christ, there are nowhere else God wants

to be found. The precious humanity of

our Lord Jesus Christ.

He is the temple now folks. And what

that means is we don't have to go

somewhere to encounter God. Yet I argue

with you that most people instinctually

don't believe that because it is

absolutely true that he left that temple

and he was holy. That means anywhere he

goes was holy. Anywhere he went became

sacramental.

I had a beautiful lady in our church,

Ethne. Ethne was Scottish.

And Ethanne, we used to I don't know if

you guys were around in a church at ever

where you the pastor preaches and he

goes to the back and he shakes hands. I

absolutely hated it, by the way. And he

had to Hi. Hi. Yeah. Thanks. I know.

Yeah. Yeah. Ser was great. Yeah. And

she would come up finally and she would

always be at the end. And Ethne was, if

she didn't like it, she'd even say to

me, "I'm not shaking your hand today,

Kazzy.

That was not a good sermon."

And Anne can bear witness to this cuz

she heard the whole thing or the whole

church heard the whole thing.

But she had this thing she used to do

and she'd like to tell me off-colored

jokes, okay? Because her idea was less

shocked the pastor. What she didn't know

and I didn't tell her is I grew up in

Prince George. So, good luck. Okay.

So, one day she's giggling and she walks

up to me and we're in the sanctuary.

We're shaking hands and she says,

"Emyry,

I've got a good one for you. This is

going to knock your knickers off," she

said.

"But I can't tell you now." And she

looked around the sanctuary. "God will

hear. Let's go downstairs."

Absolutely true story.

And you guys laugh, but how many people

have you heard say, "I can't enter a

church. I'll explode into flames."

Anybody heard that?

The truth is, what's so amazing about

this is there isn't a place

now where God is just kind of like, I'm

here and I'll get you, but you go down

to the pub and you'll be safe. Because

guess what this means? Jesus has legs.

And if he goes down to the pub, you'll

burn there.

[laughter]

What it means, folks, is that our God

has gone out. He's evangelistic.

And then what does he do? He makes us

little Jesus. And that's why Paul calls

us the church, the temple. Do you see?

Because we become the place where heaven

and earth meet.

So when you are out at the pub, I'm not

recommending this. I should stop using

the pub, Starbucks.

You are just as much having a moment

where you're talking about God. You are

having just as sacramental a moment as

if you're sitting in here right now

because Jesus changed the game. He

judged religion and he brought it into

relationship and he made us that.

But that doesn't mean what we do doesn't

matter

because what we do does matter. You see

when God built the temple, if you

actually study the temple, it's really

boring. But you understand with all

those rules, a lot of them was to say

you are not like the pagans. We are my

I'm not like the pagan god. Okay?

Worship me like this. And there's all

these rules on how to do it. But it was

all pointing to the creational god, the

good god, the god who made them in their

image.

All of those sacrificial systems was to

set them to right

unlike the other sacrificial systems

which was more to feed the gods.

These things were happening because he

wants to show who he is. And when we

come together and I believe that it's a

beautiful thing. Don't think I don't

believe this is a wonderful moment. I

think it's essential we worship together

because I can tell you where two or more

gather Jesus is there. And I believe

when his church gets together, we are

the temple. I do.

So if the temple we are supposed to be,

then it matters just like to the

original temple what we say about who we

are. Right? Most people who walk into

your church building now. I'm an

environmental psychology background.

That's that that's what I took. And what

the environmental psychology teaches you

is your smells, your visions, what you

present shows more about who you are

than words of your mouth will.

How you dress right now is honestly

telling people who you are. So most

people unlike me who my wife dresses me.

So it more tells you who she is.

It more says who she is.

But most people dress and they want it.

And I don't know if you realize but

subconsciously you're saying something

about yourself, right? Well, that that's

why they do it. You ever go in a mall,

right? You have certain smells. You have

certain paints and all of those things.

They say something about who you are.

When you go into a group of friends, the

way they act, it says something about

who they are. And God made us this way.

And the way we do things matters.

And the biggest critique of the church

in North America is they've forgotten to

do things that highlight who the

biblical Christ is.

And they look so much more like the

world

because it sells

that mega church. And I'm going to be

the first to say this

here. I don't know, maybe somebody else

has. Megaurches shouldn't happen.

Mega churches are not what Jesus

imagined. One guy speaking to 10,000

people. How many preachers are out there

that could share the gospel that they

could create other churches? Tons. How

many musicians could they have? Tons.

How many witnesses of small people

worshiping together could they have?

They could have tons.

I actually don't believe and I you're

going to hate me for this that a church

would be bigger than 300. I don't. Go

plant somewhere else and get somebody

else with the gifts to run with it.

Because as soon as you get bigger and

bigger, you have to entertain. And then

you become

like the world. You may not even preach

the world's stuff, but when they come

in, they're going to see the world. I

went in with Jason into a worship

service, and they had foam coming out of

the what's that foam stuff coming out?

That

>> smoke.

>> Smoke. Laser beams.

Honestly, they had a lady up painting

over here. music's playing

and I was just sitting there

because I have ADHD for one and then

they had like the speaker come up while

they're playing behind him. I hate that.

You'll never hear somebody play behind

me. They did it to me once. I almost

knocked them out.

All of that stuff. And all of the people

like, "Ah, yeah." Ah, I sat there and I

went, "Oh, this was like when I went to

the nightclub when I was 18. Smelt

exactly like it." Smelted like And there

were a lot of young people and I think

there was just as much hormones.

It matters what we do. Floating Trump

drum players.

Charles Coulson said it the best. I

think the church has been bought brought

into the same value system as the world.

Fame, success, materialism, and

celebrity. We watch the leading churches

and the leading Christians for our cues.

We want to emulate the best known

preachers with the biggest sanctuaries

and the grandest edififices.

Preoccupation with these values has

perverted the church's message.

That's true.

So, I was in a church called the

Vineyard.

And they were from California.

That's where they started in the 70s.

And every preacher would talk like this.

So, man, you got your Jesus dude and he

really likes you and yeah, he loved you

so much he got nailed to the cross. And

then like, whoa,

resurrection.

And then all of a sudden the band would

come up and they'd be wearing their, you

know, surfer board shorts and stuff and

[clears throat]

boom boom. And we were so hip because we

were breaking all the traditional molds

and people started, you know, doing the

funky chicken in the

because I'm free, man.

I would watch this and I couldn't bring

anyone to that service.

I loved the church and I love the people

in that church, but I couldn't bring

them because they would have first of

all thought we were nuts because we look

nuts.

But I wasn't even knowing what we were

saying to them when somebody's doing I

had saw a guy I think God's real in that

because I saw a guy spin 407 times in a

row and he didn't fall over. That is a

miracle. That's a sign, man.

I've seen that.

But what's that say? God likes to spin.

No, I don't care if you spin, by the

way. I don't care if you get flags. I do

care about the foam.

>> Says smoke.

>> Okay, whatever it is, the stuff the

laser shoot through.

>> That's that's But what I do care is that

it makes sense and it shows us who Jesus

is. Now, Sean said to me, and he's

right, the best thing we do in our

tradition, because we actually have a

tradition that has been doing this for a

long time, the reformed tradition, is

that we one thing we do right, I think,

is we do it a system that shows you what

Jesus is about and what it means to be a

Christian throughout the week.

So, when you come here, it's not random.

It's meant to show us we've prayerfully

over the 500 years thought about how to

do this. So when you come in and we do

as time to stop and to and to get

ourselves right with God, we assume the

truth that all of us come in with our

garbage from the week, right?

When you hear that call to worship, when

you hear that, it's me reminding you why

we're here. We need to hear that because

our brains are on what's going on at

work, right? that we're now entering

into a different story. And then you

hear those words of confession.

All of us every day sin, right?

And it doesn't mean by the way you just

confess here.

It's a thing that lays out the

foundation of how do you live your life

Christianly

to confess. It shows also to the world

that we have a God who will hear our

confessions.

And then when you hear those words of

assurance,

that shows we have a God

who wants to forgive,

right?

And then when the kids come up, it shows

we value the children. Come unto me.

And when we take in the income, it's not

because we think he's going to protect

us. It's for us to bless so we can show

what we're going to do and how we're

going to use us as stewards. just like

you have to with your own income, right?

And then we have the prayers of the

people. These moments where we all come

together and pray. It's not meant to end

that way. It's meant to say, "We have a

God worth praying for. Who's listening?"

So that you can go home and pray and

believe it.

And then we have the scriptures read.

Oh, I This is a pet peeve of mine. So

many churches don't read scripture

independent of the sermon. And it's

insane.

Because what you say when you don't do

that is that the preacher is the one

giving the word. When that is being

read, that's the word of God. That is

the inspired transcendent word of God.

That's what we put ourselves under.

The preacher only comes up to comment on

that precious transcendent word.

Yet preaching is important because we

are to share the gospel.

The power of preaching. That's why we

preach. And then we end with worship.

Oh, the psalms, the call to praise with

our mouth. God gave us these m voices,

even mine

because he wants us to sing in joy

or sing in lamentation. That's why we do

all of this stuff because it's our

lives. And when we come to that table,

we're coming to that point that says,

"This is who our main guy is, and this

is how he wins."

Do you see?

It's not a show. It's not meant to be a

show. Somebody came up to me and said,

"Emmyry, how good's your music?" And I

said, "Well, it's pretty good. Wasn't

always great, but it's good now."

But I said, "You know what? He is not

there to entertain you.

Watch Jason. He doesn't entertain. He's

there so that you sing.

Do you see why we do the things we do?

Cuz it has to have purpose. Cuz God

cares. And I will invite anyone to this

church. Because of the way we do it, not

because of me.

Whether I'm preaching or not, I'll

invite them because we're showing them

what it means to be a Christian.

Alistister beg

said, "The church is where it is today

because it is decided that advertising

agents know better than the Holy

Spirit."

That's a pretty tough one, right?

I believe firmly

that the Holy Spirit has called us to

follow Jesus and the Holy Spirit is here

in so much as we look like him.

I'm going to end on a high point because

that was critical. I can't end there.

The greatest news with Jesus being the

temple is he's also our high priest.

Isn't that good? That's right.

>> He is the one who stands in the gap for

us. Unlike them, he longs to sacrifice.

The sacrificial system went to him. He

became the temple. He became the high

priest. And he was the sacrifice. Isn't

that amazing?

>> [snorts]

>> Now if John is right,

but these are written so that you may

believe that Lord Jesus is the Christ,

the son of God, and that by believing in

his name, you have might abundant life

in his name. Then this is the main

reason why you can

[snorts] because we still come to the

temple. We're not changed. We're still

true Israel, sons of Abraham by faith.

But when we come to that temple,

we have the high priest Jesus Christ

who's already sacrificed for us.

We are welcomed in. There's no curtain.

There's no living in fear. There's no

keeping the Gentiles out. There's no

making money or sac or changing tables.

We come in only because of his

sacrifice. And everyone's welcomed.

Amen.

>> Thank you.

And listen to what it says. Since then

we have a great high priest who has

passed through the heavens, Jesus the

son of God. Let us hold fast our

confession. For we do not have a high

priest who is unable to sympathize with

our weaknesses, but one who in every

respect has been tempted as we are yet

without sin.

Because of that, let us then with

confidence draw near to the throne of

grace that we may receive mercy and find

grace to help in the time of need.

The good news, folks, is we don't do

religion anymore. We do relationship.

We do not sacrifice. We've had someone

sacrifice for us.

We don't have to go to a building and

look and do things

like the world.

We have the God who is the building,

who's here right now and makes us the

temple.

And all he asks us to do is to bear his

image.

What a gift, eh?

What a gift that you and me and I know

you've sinned this week because I have

too

that we have a God that says forgiven

and the one that can because he is the

only high priest that can.

We should be running into church

excited, not afraid. And you can tell

your friends, I can't come into a church

cuz I might burn up. He says, "No, the

one who was going to the one who is

going to take the suffering has already

done it for you. Come on in."

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, you have shown us

Such a beautiful

truth about who you are. How much you

are not like the gods made by humans.

You're not a God stuck in a bedroom in a

building.

You're not a God who needs to be fed.

You're not a God who

needs to be adored in some narcissistic

sense,

but rather you are a God who is worthy

of worship because you are a God who

gives his life for his people.

We thank you, Father, that you have

become the temple in Jesus Christ

and that we can come freely to you

because of your sacrifice.

Make us excited about this when we come

together. Make us excited when we pray

together, when we meet in our homes, in

our small groups, or yes, in the pub

that we are the temple, the place where

heaven and earth meets. And let us be a

people expectant for you to move.

We thank you, God, that you've shown us

who you are. May you by your grace

humble us so that we may in our worship

show you to the world.

Amen.