Sermon Tone Analysis

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Welcome — I hope you’re well.

If you’re new, we go through books of the Bible, we’re in Matthew.

If you don’t have a Bible, you can have the one in the pew in front of you.

Let’s go to page 482 together. .

If you’re able, please stand with me for the reading of God’s Word.

Matthew

Most of the world believes in God.

Most of the world embraces this idea — we long for something more.

The Bible even acknowledges this reality.

“ETERNITY INTO OUR HEART” — we long for something more than what’s in front of us.

And the Bible is so blatant about the truth.

Sometimes we make it more confusing than it is.

So, many of us, we take on a form of godliness/religiosity/spirituality… THE PROBLEM is we make it about US.

It’s not about worshipping God, it’s about alleviating our anxiety, fear, loneliness, sense of longing we talked about a minute ago...

But here’s what’s real: Faith isn’t about us, it’s primarily about God.

We get that mixed up.

And when we get that mixed up, we often miss the whole point.

So what does that look like?

When we make faith primarily about us:

(1) We make our faith almost exclusively about us.

We’re less likely to take risks

We’re less likely to be uncomfortable for the sake of mission and ministry

We’re always weighing mission and ministry against how it will affect us and make us feel.

We only give when it’s easy + safe + convenient.

(2) We lack a relational prayer life.

We ask God for things sometimes, but again, it’s always about us.

We’re too busy doing things that make us look good + or that advance our agenda, prayer is our last concern.

Prayer simply seems pointless to us.

As a result, our faith is void of any real power or substance.

(3) We see others as obstacles rather than children of God.

So: “I like you if you make me better...”

But: “If you’re a problem to me in any way, I want nothing to do with you.”

To us, people become the problem… But to God, people are the POINT.

Do you see the difference???

The religious people in Jerusalem had made their whole faith system earnestly, but they missed the mark — they worked hard at it, but missed the point of it… It’s sad, really.

But we do it too!

Big idea for today: In this passage we see a description of what it looks like to appropriately worship God.

And I am not talking about songs or music or anything like that necessarily… that’s a part of it, sure.

But I am talking about our day-in-day-out worship of God… how we approach God in the real world, in our lives, everyday.

Big idea for today: In this passage we see a description of what it looks like to appropriately worship God.

Org.

sentence: (1) Better understand the temple, (2) Why Jesus is upset at what’s going on, and (3) how are we to think about this in light of the whole of Scripture?

description

subject

Jesus in the temple

what text saying about subject?

Jesus drives people out of the temple

response?

worship appropriately

how does text elicit response?

Jesus quotes Isaiah 56:7, accepts children’s identifying him as Messiah

how does fit in history of redemption?

The people of God have always been called to worship God appropriately… God made us, and called it good, all the way back in Genesis.

Unfortunately, we have not heeded that command.

We do not worship God as we should.

Fortunately, Jesus DOES! Jesus is the one who worshipped God rightly, and when we give our life to him, because of his death and resurrection, we can have the benefits of his perfect obedience — which is life with God under God’s good and perfect rule!

primary claim: In this passage we see a description of what it looks like to appropriately worship God.

against prosperity gospel

MARK talks about chief priests wanting to kill Jesus… also, “house of prayer for ALL NATIONS”

temple area was for Gentiles and Jews, alike.

Then you made your way to area only for Jews

Keller Q: “And this is a place where the Gentiles were supposed to find God through quiet reflection and prayer?”

Jesus is coming against what was thought of at the time… people thought the temple would be cleaned of foreigners… when actually Jesus was cleaning it FOR the foreigners… Jesus was acting as their “advocate”

the temple pointed to Eden… the perfect temple… ultimately we forfeited this when we rebelled against God… we were separated.

Keller quote pg 158… nobody gets back without the sword

temple had the holy of holies… only once a year… only a Jewish priest carrying a blood sacrifice

but we are told that one day the world will be the holy of holies!

John Owen… “the death of death in the death of Christ.”

Keller: “When Jesus went under the sword, it broke his body, but it also broke itself.”

mark 15:38, the veil ripped…

What is the temple?

(vs.

12)

Up to this point, Jesus has been doing almost all of his ministry outside of the city, outside of Jerusalem.

We noticed last week, Jesus making this pretty incredible entry back into Jerusalem, people cheering and praising and all excited.

And following that he strolls into the temple.

The temple was so significant, it was the place of worship — it was the place of sacrifice.

If we look all the way back to the beginning of the Bible, what we would find is Adam and Even in the Garden of Eden.

The Garden was lush with beauty and perfection.

The food was plentiful, the scenery was colorful and warm, the relationship between God and mankind was perfectly connected.

Adam and Eve had direct access to God.

They spoke to each other freely and without boundary.

It was without pain, without suffering, without drama!

The Garden of Eden was a type of Temple, the place where God’s people would commune with God.

A place of peace, a place of connection with the creator God.

Unfortunately, this harmonious communion didn’t last long.

Adam and Eve, rather than trusting in God, chose to obey the lying serpent and rebel.

Like all sin, theirs was one of distrust and pride.

The serpent told Adam and Eve, that they could be like God… and that God was withholding from them.

So they chose to disobey, to rebel the creator… with the desire to be exalted themselves!

And this fractured their relationship with God.

This ultimately, altered the course of history.

They had to leave Eden, and their relationship with God changed forever.

Their perspective did expand, but not in the way they probably imagined.

They now understand the potential for pain + suffering… loneliness + other mysterious evils.

They got what they wanted… they were not on their own, to make for themselves a good life — and to say it was difficult would be a radical understatement.

See, the temple that Jesus walks into — is the place where people would make sacrifices to God… which acted as a symbol of sorts… the sacrifices represented the cost that their sins incurred.

There was a debt that was owed.

If you’ve ever been wronged or if anyone has ever stolen from you, then you know what this feels like.