The King Comes For His Worship

Heavenly Father, we have gathered here today to worship you, you are worthy. Holy God, you alone are worthy of our worship and it is your due. You're worthy because of your glorious character. You're worthy because of your incredible power. You're worthy because of your tender, loving kindness toward us. Lord, you created everything and our deepest moments of satisfaction in this life, of joy, of happiness, but ripples, of the source of all joy, the source of all beauty, the source of all glory and that's you. And Lord, as we marvel today, the fact that you became one of us, you became man in order to represent us on a cross dying, a brutal gory death. You did that in order to save us, to pay for our ransom.

And to provide the means for our hearts to be regenerated and filled with the spirit. Lord, we come to you now with humble hearts and repentance. Repentance for the fact that so often in life we have not sought you above all else. We have not given you the primacy that you deserve. The primacy of our deepest devotion, of our deepest love, of our deepest adoration. So we ask for forgiveness and we ask that you give us the grace and stir our hearts to worship you evermore so that we don't just sing songs of worship, but live lives of sacrificial worship daily for you, you're worthy. Lord bless our time, the holy scriptures, Holy Spirit, come and meditate, and help us meditate and stir our hearts.

Help us understand the text and nourish and feed our souls. We pray all this in Christ's holy name. Amen. We're continuing our sermon series through the Gospel of Mark called Kingdom Come. The Gospel of Mark and the secret of God's kingdom, and the title of the sermon today is The King has Come for His Worship. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin once said, "There are decades when nothing happens, and then, there are weeks when decades happen. And then, there is one week where eternity happens," and this of course is the holy week. This is the final week of the life of Jesus Christ, prior to his death as burial and resurrection. Our text today so to speak, brings us to Palm Sunday.

Sunday was the first day of holy week and it marks the beginning of the most important week in the most important person's life. And if you don't understand what happened during this one week, you'll never truly understand history. You'll never truly understand your history and you'll never truly understand your destiny. So important it is this one week that Mark, who we have seen from his writing, he's very efficient with words. Well, Mark pauses here and he devotes one third of his gospel to this one week. And Mark being a disciple of the apostle Peter, learned about the significance of this week from Peter himself.

So how does Jesus begin the most important week of his life? Well, with the parade basically, and it's a parade for himself. And this right here is very surprising because up to this date, Jesus has been known to withdraw from publicity, from wide publicity. He heals people. And how many times after healing he says, "Don't tell anybody because the time had not come for him to reveal himself." And here today, we see another side of Christ. He drops the private character and through his own orchestration calls public attention to himself and he does everything he does here deliberately. He enters Jerusalem deliberately at the head of his disciples.

He voluntarily rides into the holy city on a donkey, and he's surrounded by multitudes who are crying out, "Hosanna, save us. God save us." They are appealing to Jesus as to the Lord, and he doesn't stop them. Why? Because Jesus has come for his worship. He is the king above all kings who deserves all worship. He comes where? To Jerusalem. And when he comes to Jerusalem, where does he go in Jerusalem? He goes to the temple. Why? What was the purpose of the temple? It was the place where people gathered to worship God, to make sacrifices to God, to pray to God, to learn more about his law and his word and asks for grace.

The temple had become corrupted, and that's why in the parallel passage in Matthew, Jesus after Palm Sunday, the next day he goes into the temple and he drives out the money changers and he overturns their tables. And what does he say? He says, "My house, my house shall be called a house of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers." God himself has come. It is his house and he's demanding his worship. So Jesus, the king of kings, has come to reclaim his rightful place of our greatest worship, adoration, affection, reverence, purpose, and delight. He has come to occupy, so to speak, the throne in the temple in the most holy place.

And what is the most holy place in the temple? It's a place called the Holy of Holies, and he's coming for that spot. Did he do it? Did he occupy the throne in the temple? Well, not the one in Jerusalem, not in the second temple, the second temple was destroyed. No, Jesus established the third temple. When you say third temple, what's that? Well, it's the temple of the Holy Spirit. This is the church of God. The church comprised of every saved and Holy Spirit-filled believer. And how did Jesus take the throne in the Holy of Holies, by taking the cross at Calvary. And this is why our Lord purposely made the last week of his life so public.

He came to die in Jerusalem and he wanted all of Jerusalem to know it, to witness it. When Jesus taught the deep things of the spirit, he would gather his apostles and teach them the secrets of God's kingdom. When he delivered his parables, he often addressed none other than the multitudes, but then he explained what the parables meant to his disciples. When he led his public ministry, it was generally in Capernaum, in the land of Zebulun and Naphtali. When he came to die, he made it very public. He drew attention to himself, attention of rulers, of scribes, of Pharisees, of the Greeks and the Romans. He knew that the most wonderful event that ever happened in this world was about to take place.

The eternal son of God was about to suffer in the stead of sinful people. The great sacrifice for sin was about to be offered up. And he's the great Passover lamb to be slain. The great atonement for the world's sin was about to be made. He therefore orders everything this week in perfect detail. He overrules things in such a way that all the eyes of all the inhabitants of Jerusalem would be fixed upon him. When he died, he died before many witnesses. Today, we're in Mark chapter 11 verses one through 11. Would you look at this majestic text with me? "And when they drew near to Jerusalem to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to them, Go into the village in front of you."

"And immediately as you enter it, you will find a colt tied on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, why are you doing this? Say the Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately. And they went away and found a colt tied at a door outside in the street and they untied it. And some of those standing there said to him, what are you doing, untying the colt? And they told them what Jesus had said and they let them go and they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it and he sat on it. And many spread their cloaks on the road and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields."

"And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father, David. Hosanna in the highest. And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. And when he looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the 12." This is the reading of God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts, three points to frame up our time. First, King Jesus, the conquer of wills. Second, King Jesus, the conquer of hearts. And third, King Jesus, the conqueror of worship.

First, King Jesus, the conquer of wills. The time had come for Jesus to enter Jerusalem, so he's orchestrating not just the details of the final week, he's orchestrating a showdown between him and the religious establishment. Those who are currently in positions of authority in the temple, and the members of the Sanhedrin, those who should have known the law of God, the word of God, the Messianic prophecies more than absolutely everyone, these are the people who oppose Jesus the most. They oppose him with everything they have. They will soon hatch a plot to have Jesus killed and in doing so, ensure that Jesus dies as a ransom for our sins.

The very thing that Jesus had predicted. The wrath of men against the Son of God is about to become the means by which the Son of God turns aside the Father's wrath towards his people. And what we see in the showdown is it's a showdown of wills. It's a battle of wills. Christ fulfilling the will of the Father. He does it perfectly. He's opposed by whom? By those who say they represent God but want nothing to do with his will. We reached the point in Mark's account when Jesus and his disciples at long last go to Jerusalem and from this point Mark 11 until the end of the gospel, Jesus ministry takes place in and around the city.

We enter Holy Week, Chapters 11 through 13 is the first three days in chapter 11, Jesus enters Jerusalem, enters the temple, and then in chapter 12, there's a conversation about cursing and blessing upon Israel. And then, Jesus receives from the members of the Sanhedrin opposition. In chapter 13, Jesus recounts the teaching of Jesus's recounted of the redemptive history, eschatology of what's coming in the so-called Olivet discourse. Chapter 14 deals with the last supper, Peter's denial of Jesus, Judas' betrayal of Jesus. And chapter 15 deals with Jesus before Pilate and then 16 is about his resurrection. Even as we take some time in the next few weeks to cover these momentous events, we shouldn't forget that the rest of the book is one week, meaning that's how important it is.

One third of the book is devoted to six days of Jesus' life. Verse one of chapter 11. Now, when they drew near to Jerusalem to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples. If you recall, they were in Jericho the day before on their way to Jerusalem, that's where Bartimaeus, the blind man was healed. And here we see Jesus coming very close to Jerusalem. Bethany is located two miles away from the city. Bethphage is about half a mile away. Bethphage in the Aramaic means house of unripe figs. And later on in the chapter, Jesus talks about the fact that he came to look for fruit in Israel and he couldn't find any.

Bethany is mentioned because this is where Jesus will spend most of his last nights during the passion week. It's also important because Bethany is where Jesus had one of his greatest miracles. The culmination of his ministry up to that moment was when Lazarus died and Jesus intentionally he heard that Lazarus was sick. Someone sent Word and then, he intentionally waits for Lazarus to die. And then he comes back and he ministers to Mary and Martha, and then he brings Lazarus back from the dead. This happened immediately before Holy week and it was all very intentional. It was to provoke the people in power because of his popularity. Immediately everyone heard that Lazarus came back from the dead.

And most likely Lazarus and his sisters were part of the group of the multitudes of people that were following Jesus, entering Jerusalem. And Lazarus was not just an eyewitness of a resurrection, he's living proof. One of the greatest preachers of that day must've been this guy and he is like, you think death is terrible? Let me tell you, it's awful. And Jesus brought me back from the dead. That guy, I was dead. I was in the tomb. Jesus brought me back from the dead, so he's testifying and obviously, what are the people in power thinking? They're thinking, this messianic fervor has reached a fever pitch. Now there has to be a showdown.

What do we do? Do we accept as the Sanhedrin that Jesus is the messiah, that he is the one that was the promised? Are we going to do that? And then, we lose our positions, we lose our authority, we lose our power, we lose our influence. So Jesus does enter and he enters the city in a way that draws as much attention to himself as possible, knowing that this will lead to the crucifixion. There was unparalleled tension in Jerusalem. Most people in the city were visitors. The city of Jerusalem during Passover week would swell in two, three times normal size of the population. And what we see with Christ as the pressure mounted, everything Jesus does is very definite, very calculated, and very premeditated.

The Mount of Olives here is mentioned. There were two Old Testament passages that mentioned this site. The first is associated with Zechariah with God's triumphal military and his victory. Then, the second time is when King David fled from Jerusalem, weeping, his weeping flight after his sovereignty was rejected and both of these associations resonate. On the one hand, Jesus is coming as the conquering king, and the way that he conquers people's wills is by going to the cross and by being rejected and by suffering and being rejected, he provides the means for our salvation. Verse two, "And he said to them, go into the village in front of you, and immediately as you enter it, you'll find a colt tied on which no one has ever sat, untie it and bring it."

What's this conversation about the colt? The colt was baby donkey, a new donkey, so to speak, a young donkey. And what's important here is it is a donkey and it's also a donkey that has never been written on because as the king, one of the ways that the king was honored is he was given an animal to ride that no one had ever sat on. And this is Zechariah 9:9. This is centuries before Christ. Six centuries before Christ. A very precise prophecy is given in Zechariah 9:9. It says, "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your king is coming to you. Behold your king is coming to you, righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey."

So prophecies being fulfilled before their very eyes that the Messiah would come and he wouldn't come on a stallion or a steed of war. He would come on a donkey. The other prophecy that is being fulfilled in Jesus' entry this way is Genesis 49. In Genesis 49, we see Jacob prophesying over his sons and he prophesies the following over Judah. In Genesis 49:10, "The scepter shall not depart from Judah nor the ruler staff from between his feet until a tribute comes to him. And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. Binding his foal to the vine and his donkey's colt to the choice vine. He has washed his garments and wine and his vesture in the blood of grapes."

And according to the oracle of Judah, it will be someone, the Messiah will be someone from the tribe of Judah who will tether his young colt in preparation, preparation to do what? Preparation to die. Thus, the language about the blood of grapes, it's language of the shedding of blood for the remission of sins. It says, "He shall bring the people's obedience to himself," but the way that he brings their obedience, the way that the king, the Messiah takes our wills is by dying for us, by shedding of blood. Christ, the line of Judah, of the tribe of Judah, he wants us to see these connections. He's riding a donkey to fulfill Zechariah 9:9, and he's fulfilling the prophecy of Judah.

It's to show that everything he's doing, he's doing in complete submission to the will of the father. And verse three says, if anyone says to you, why are you doing this? Say the Lord has need of it, and we'll send it back here immediately. The owners of the donkey apparently are there, and they see the disciples, we've never seen you guys and the disciples just come up and take the donkey, just untie it, and they just take it. And the people are like, "What are you doing?" Leave that donkey alone, and they just respond to the words of Jesus. The Lord has need of it, and this is a tremendous, tremendous point of theology.

The Lord sometimes does demand from us things. As I was thinking about this, you know what? Jesus could have done this with everybody. When he came as king of kings, he could have been like, now everyone worship me. Everyone do my will. I'm taking all your stuff. You belong to me completely. You're mine. He could have done that for everybody. The Lord has need of it, but that's not the way he does it. That's not the way he conquers the world. He conquers our wills not by demanding, but by coming and changing our wills. And how does he change our wills by changing our hearts, and how does he change our hearts? By changing our worship, the Lord has need of it.

I've been trying this out with my fundraising efforts. We are in the middle of a building campaign here at Mosaic. We're trying to raise five million dollars. So if you have an extra five million dollars, the Lord has need of it. The Lord has need of it for you to bring it here and give it to the Lord. We are really excited and we are praying for that building campaign. We're putting materials together. We'll get more out soon, but this is what he says. He is showing us that he could have done this with everyone just completely come in using the rite of impressment as other influential and powerful people. The Romans did this all the time.

They would walk in and take your horse and say, "Your horse now belongs to the emperor." Jesus does this with a colt and he says He'll send it back to you immediately. Verse four, "They went away and found a colt tied at a door outside in the street and they untied it. And some of those standing there said to him, what are you doing, untying the colt?" And verse six, and they told him what Jesus had said and they let them go. This is reminiscent of the story where Jesus tells his disciples of how to find the upper room for the Passover celebration. In both instances, Jesus foretells the way in which the mission will turn out.

And on both occasions, things occur exactly as he has predicted. Why did Jesus need the donkey to obey the scriptures, to obey the will of the Father? Everything Jesus did was in perfect submission to God the Father. Why? Well, this was the only way to save us from the fact that our will has been in rebellion to God. Our will has not been in submission to God. So Jesus, as our representative comes and fulfills the Father's will perfectly in order to be a representative for us, a sacrifice for our rebellion, and then also, to offer us an example of what it means to obey God from the heart. And this little incident along the way is as it were, a brief pulling back of the veil that hides the hand of God from our view.

The Lord directed matters in such a way as to call our attention to what he's doing. The colt is precisely where he says it will be. It's tied up precisely as he said it would. The owner is there as Jesus had said, there were eyewitnesses to see the exchange and then, they respond and the owners give the animal just like Jesus had predicted and what's on display. And what Mark here emphasizes is that Jesus is completely in control. Nothing here is on accident. He is in divine control over all of these events. And the main thing is the demonstration of his will that he is willingly doing this. He is willingly taking on our greatest enemy.

Three times in the last few chapters, Jesus has already foretold of his death, that he will be arrested by the scribes, and the priest and put to death. And on the third day, he will rise. And this was all according to his plan. Jesus is here to fulfill his mission. And the mission included many things, but principally that he would suffer and die for the sins of his people and rise for their salvation. Jesus is unlike any other king who ever lived. Every other king Alexander and the Napoleons and the Marcos of the world, they would come in and through force, they would dominate and force people into submission.

This is not how Jesus builds his kingdom. He welcomes us to repent of our sins and then, he transforms our hearts, and with transforming our hearts, we put down our wills and say, Lord Jesus, use me. In the past, critics have portrayed Jesus as attempting to turn the wheel of history only to be crushed himself. In truth, Jesus is in complete control of every detail as he rides into Jerusalem. And his writing of the donkey perfectly portrays his position as Messiah and his person, the Prince of Peace, humble and gentle. And because of the way he conquers wills, the world can be transformed because he transforms the world by transforming our hearts, and that's 0.2. King Jesus is the conqueror of hearts.

In verse seven, "And they brought the colt to Jesus and they threw their cloaks on it and he sat on it." Although the disciple's actions here do make the ride a little more comfortable for Jesus, that's not the point. The point is that this is an act of worship by taking off their garments, they are bowing their hearts to Jesus. That Jesus, you are the king and we are worshiping you. And the echo is we get an echo of the worship. He says, the coming dominion of our Father, David, in the same way that David, when he conquered, he will come in. He was worshiped as the king, he was celebrated as the king. Jesus is the greater king.

And then, as they enter with the donkey, with the clothes on, we see it's almost as if the Holy Spirit just takes over this group of people and they're filled with spontaneous and joyful celebration as they cry out to Jesus and they recognize him as the king, but he's not just a politician that comes in and people who tip the hat, he's a king that they love. And this is what we see in image of the royal procession and a coronation. Verse eight, "And many spread their cloaks on the road and other spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields." The many who welcomed him were no doubt principally people who are on their way to Jerusalem, Passover pilgrims themselves, they must have heard about Jesus.

They realize that his disciples are worshiping and they join in. They spread their cloaks on the road, making so to speak, a red carpet for him. In verse nine it says, "And those who went before and those who followed were shouting Hosanna. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the coming kingdom of our Father David, Hosanna." Now, what's striking here is when they say Hosanna, they're quoting from the Psalms, and Hosanna means save us. It means God save us. God, please save us. So they're addressing Jesus Christ as if this is God himself, as this is Yahweh. And that's shocking that Jesus doesn't stop them.

He does not say blasphemy. No, no, no worship has been given to God alone. No, he receives this worship because he is God. They're quoting from Psalm 118:25, "Save us, we pray, O Lord. O Lord, we pray, give us success. Blessed as he comes in the name of the Lord. We bless you from the house of the Lord. How do you think the Pharisees responded to this? What are they screaming? They're screaming, Lord, save us. How are they addressing? And Jesus, you didn't stop them. Jesus, what are you saying? Are you saying that you are the Lord? Yes, that's exactly what he's saying. The expression can express praise or be the cry of prayer. And here, most likely it's both.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. In the original Psalm, the benediction was not messianic, but liturgical is worship and hear the same words from this altar to worship God are being applied to Jesus Christ. And blessed is the coming kingdom of our Father, David. And here, this is the echoes of the famous oracle of prophecy in Second Samuel 7, in which God tells David, "David, you are going to have a son on the throne of your kingdom and he's going to rule eternally. It's going to be an everlasting kingdom with an everlasting throne." Well, who could fit that prophecy if not God himself? God alone is eternal. Second Samuel 7:12 through 14. And verse 16 is the prophecy.

"When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son and your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me, your throne shall be established forever." This is a prophecy that whoever this king is will be an eternal king. Well, who could do that? Jesus alone, he is the son of man. So he did take on flesh, but he is the son of God, therefore he's eternal.

And the oracle refers to Solomon not only as David's son, but also as God's, and the one that will follow Solomon will be the son of God himself. How did David establish his kingdom? How did David establish himself? How did David become such a beloved figure in Israel? Well, David, if you remember just as a scrappy shepherd boy, he decides to visit his brothers. His dad sent him and his brothers were soldiers in Saul's army, and they had a showdown with the Philistines. And the Philistines were on one side and the Israelites were on the other side. And Goliath, the champion of the Philistines says, "Let's have a showdown." It's you bring out your best against me. Whoever gets victory, that victory is imputed to the whole side.

And on a daily basis, Goliath would get up in the morning and at night, twice a day for 40 days, and he would blaspheme the name of God. He would get up and just bellow all kinds of curses upon Yahweh and the whole army of the Israel. He's just listening and then, David heard it once and he's like, I can't take this anymore. I would rather die than see my God blasphemed, dishonored. So he takes his five stones and he's like, all right, let's go Goliath. So what did he do? He took on by himself the greatest enemy of his people. That was Goliath, and he won, praise be to God. He only needed one stone because the Lord was with him.

Well, what made Jesus great? What makes Jesus great is that Jesus, the king of kings, comes and he takes on our greatest enemy, our greatest enemy, Satan, sin and death. And he comes, he defeats Satan and defeats sin. He takes the wrath of God that we deserve. And what is he doing the whole time as he's on the cross, as he's battling Satan, as he's battling sin, as he's absorbing the wrath of God, what is he doing? He's conquering our hearts. And this is how you become a Christian. Whenever you've meditate on the cross of Christ, it's meaningful to you. You understand, it's not just Jesus dying on the cross, it's Christ is dying on the cross for me, for my sins, for my lawbreaking.

He's doing this so that he won't have to reject me. He's doing this so that he can accept me and love me and put his name upon me. So Jesus comes to conquer our wills. How? By conquering our hearts, and the very moment that you repent of your sin and you turn to Jesus Christ in faith at that very moment, what something inside happens, theologians call this regeneration. You're given a brand new heart. The heart of stone is removed, the that hated God. The heart that's callous to God is removed and the heart of flesh is put in its place. So Jesus comes to conquer our wills by conquering our hearts, by conquering our worship. And this is 0.3 King Jesus, the conqueror of worship.

If you remember in Second Samuel 7, we read that David, I'm promising you, your son, your descendant will be on the throne forever and it says, he will build me a house. Did Jesus Christ build a house? This is a very important question. Did he build a temple? This is a very important question. Well, he comes into the temple, he comes in, in order to receive worship from the people, and the praise he receives is as the king who was promised and says, Hosanna in the highest, you have come from the highest place and you have come to save us. When does Jesus Christ enter Jerusalem? At what point of the calendar year At the most important part of the year.

This is where Jewish pilgrims from all over Israel would gather. They would come to Jerusalem to do what? To celebrate the Passover. The roads and ends would've been crowded. And there can be no question that Jesus picked this time to enter this city in this way because he's the true Passover lamb. He is the one that the whole city is supposed to be celebrating. Yes, Jesus could have chosen to enter the city quietly. He could have entered the city during another time of the year, but he chooses this one week where the people of God gathered to worship God. And he does this because he is Israel's messiah. He's truly come in the name of the Lord. He's truly come to save his people. When the crowd senses this.

They sense that something is different about this week. And Christ has come to inaugurate the kingdom with his sacrifice. In Mark 11:11, "He enters Jerusalem and went into the temple. And then, when he had looked around at everything as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the 12." In the parallel accounts in Matthew and Luke, it says that he went into the temple and he made a whip and he started overturning the tables of the money exchangers in the temple trade. Here in this narrative, and Mark, that's not how it ends, the story ends, Jesus came in, there was a parade. Everyone was excited, everyone was pumped.

This is the Messiah and then, the text ends with him going to the temple and looking around. He goes in, he looks around at everything it says, and then he left. It's almost as if the king has come for his worship. He looked around the temple and the people who were supposed to be worshiping God didn't even recognize him. They didn't even recognize that this is the one that we should be worshiping. And the Lord obviously came into Jerusalem in this way to attract notice, to provoke the religious authorities. And as the crowds disappear, the authorities are plotting to kill him. That temple, the second temple, was a place where God's presence was supposed to be. This is why the people gathered there.

And Jesus Christ enters the temple and he realizes that the people here are not worshiping God. And the reason why they're not worshiping God is because they haven't accepted Christ as the Messiah. This whole city that was so enthusiastic to receive Jesus Christ as a Messiah, a few days later, that enthusiasm will turn into savage bloodlust. Why? Because these people hadn't given the Lord their worship. And this was really the issue that the people of God stopped making God first, the people of God stopped making the word of God first. The people of God had lost the primacy of worshiping God. With the whole city before his eyes.

The parallel passage in Luke, it tells us that Jesus, as he saw Jerusalem, as he saw the whole thing, he got very emotional. He felt deep sorrow. And scripture says that he wept loudly right there in the middle of the road with a great city and dramatic panorama. He wailed over Jerusalem as a grown man, as the Son of man, son of God. He's wailing over Jerusalem, Luke 19:41, "And when he drew near to the city and drew near and saw the city, he wept over it saying, would that you, even you had known on this day the things that make for peace, but now, they're hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you."

"And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation." And by prophetic vision, the Lord saw the proud unrepentant, holy city reduced to a pile of rubble, wet with the blood of his people. And 40 years later, this all came true under Titus Romans legions. The Jewish resistance was so fierce that Titus finally ordered the legions to encircle the walls of Jerusalem and barricade it and starve them out, and the resulting famine made Jerusalem a graveyard. And finally, when the people inside didn't have the strength to bury their dead, they would just cast them over the walls into the surrounding ravines.

So great was the destruction of Jerusalem that Josephus, the historian writes, when Titus going, his rounds beheld, these valleys choked with dead, he groaned and raising his hands to heaven, called God to witness that this was not his doing. Such was the situation of the city, of the final destruction that Josephus writes, Caesar ordered the whole city and the temple to be raised to the ground, leaving only the loftiest of the towers. The latter is an encampment for the garrison that was to remain in the towers, to indicate to posterity, the nature of the city and of the strong defenses which had not yet yielded to Roman prowess.

All the rest of the wall encompassing the city was so completely leveled to the ground, asked to leave future visitors to the spot, no ground for believing that it had ever been inhabited. Such was the end to which the frenzy of revolutionaries brought Jerusalem that splendid city of worldwide renowned. Why did Jesus weep? Jesus saw the destruction that was coming, destruction of what? Destruction of the temple. Destruction of the place where the people of God worship God. Jesus saw that that destruction of the temple was coming. And now, the question you got to ask is, "Well, wasn't it prophesied that the Son of David, the Messiah, would come and he would build a new temple?"

Did Jesus Christ build a new temple? Yes, yes. He built a new temple of the Holy Spirit. The third temple is the church of God. It's the elect. So Jesus came in a way and he went to the cross and he did it all in order to reclaim our worship so that wherever we are, wherever we live, whatever place and time we inhabit, that we can worship God as a worshiper in spirit and truth. In John 2:13 through 22, 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 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 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 said this and they believed the scriptures and the word that Jesus had spoken."

The king had come for his worship. And how does he procure? How does he get his worship? Well, he says, "Here's my temple. Here's my temple. Destroy it." And he allowed himself to be destroyed. That was the way to turn the people of God into the temple of God. What's at the very center of the temple of God? It's the Holy of Holies. It's the holiest place in the temple. It's where the Holy Spirit descended upon. And Jesus Christ comes for the Holy of Holies, not just in the temple, but the Holy Holies of our lies, of our very hearts. And each one of us, if we're brutally honest, if we truly come to God in spirit and in truth we'll say deep down in our Holy of Holies, that's the place of adoration, of affection.

That's what we love more than anything else. What is worship? Worship is the highest level, the highest order of love. So what is keeping us? Every single one, what is keeping us from more of the presence of God? It's sin in our Holy of Holies. It's sin in our hearts. It's a lack of worship of the king. So the king comes for his worship. It's his due. He deserves it and he has earned it. The king becomes the Passover lamb sacrificed to save us from death and free us from slavery to sin and to shield us from Satan. And Jesus. The king comes for the temple to reclaim our worship. He comes for the Holy of Holies, the one at the center of your heart. The one you try to keep God out of.

And Jesus comes to give us access to the Holy of Holies, the very center of the presence of God. To do that, he must cleanse your Holy of Holies in order for the Holy Spirit to indwell you, there needs to be a removal of sin from your heart, from the very heart of hearts, the Holy of Holies. And that's what Jesus Christ has come to do. This is how we become Christians through faith in Christ and repentance of sin. And this is how we grow as followers of the Lord. On a daily basis, you say, Lord Jesus, search me out in my Holy of Holies. Is there any sin? Is there a lack of submission? Is there any lack of love for you? Am I worshiping anything other than you?

Am I devoting myself to anything that is of greater primacy than you? You repent, you receive grace, and the Lord changes us from within Hebrews 10:19 through 25, "Therefore brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is through his flesh. And since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised this faithful."

"And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near." In John chapter four, and I'll close it with this, Jesus having a conversation with a woman at the well, a Samaritan woman. And she wants to talk about religion. She wants to talk about temples and worship. And Jesus wants to talk about her personal life. He wants to talk about how she is following God. And what she realizes in that moment is, "Oh, I want to talk about worship," but he wants to talk about obedience to God. And for Jesus, it was one and the same. The reason why we obey God is because we long to worship him.

And finally, Jesus, after revealing to the woman her need for grace, he said, the following about worship in John 4:23, "But the hour is coming and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." And how do we grow in worshiping the Lord in spirit and truth? Truth from the holy scriptures, God, this is who you are. This is who I am. You come to God. There's no lie. There's no deceit.

He knows everything to begin with. Open page before the Lord and then, you say, "Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, give me grace. Holy Spirit, teach me. Holy Spirit, reveal the things of God to me. Holy Spirit, lead me. Holy Spirit, use me." And this is how we worship on a daily basis. This is how we present our lives, our bodies as living sacrifices to worship God and spirit and truth. With that said, would you please pray with me? Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time in the holy scriptures, and I pray Holy Spirit, now search out our hearts. Search out the Holy of Holies within our hearts. Lord, if there's any allegiance in our hearts that is to anything or any person greater than allegiance to you, I pray, Lord, fix that.

If there's any affection, if we love anything more than we love you, I pray, Lord change that. If we desire anything more than we desire your glory and your will, Lord, change that. Lord Jesus, we thank you for the reminder that you entered in Jerusalem to be worshiped, and this is how you transform our lives by making us worshipers of God, who worship in spirit and in truth. And we pray all of this in the beautiful name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.