Speaker 1: Good morning.
Speaker 1: My name is Cheryl Maccarino.
Speaker 1: Our scripture reading this morning is from the book of Mark, the 11th Chapter Verses 15 through 18.
Speaker 1: Then they came to Jerusalem and he entered the temple and began to drive out those who are buying and selling in the temple and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves.
Speaker 1: And he would not permit anyone to carry merchandise through the temple.
Speaker 1: And he began to teach and to say to them, is it not written?
Speaker 1: My House shall be called a house of prayer for all nations, but you have made it a robber's den.
Speaker 1: The chief priest and the scribes heard this and began seeking how to destroy him for they were afraid of him for the whole crowd was astonished at his teaching.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Cheryl.
Speaker 2: Well, it's good to be with you this morning.
Speaker 2: How are you doing this morning?
Speaker 2: Uh, okay.
Speaker 2: I guess it's good to be back actually.
Speaker 2: Uh, as Andre mentioned, I've been in Africa for about 10 days and just got, uh, flew back in on, uh, I guess early Friday morning, a little bit after midnight.
Speaker 2: And, uh, so great to be back, but the sermon that we're going to be looking at this morning, I wrote in prepared before I left because of the quick turnaround and, and God has just really been using it in my life over the last couple of weeks as I've been on the mission field in Africa.
Speaker 2: And so just really excited to share that with you this morning and to share what God's been speaking to me, uh, with you.
Speaker 2: And, uh, so if you haven't already turned there, uh, make sure you go to mark chapter 11.
Speaker 2: We're going to be in verses 15 through 18 is you just heard read the scripture and a, before we start, I want to mention a few things about this passage of some background information that is going to come into play throughout the message this morning.
Speaker 2: Uh, we're actually skipping mark chapter 11 verses 12 through 14, which is a story about the fig tree.
Speaker 2: But don't worry, we're going to come back to it in a couple of weeks.
Speaker 2: The story of the fig tree is actually divided into two different pot, excuse me, two different parts in the story we're going to be looking at today.
Speaker 2: The cleansing of the temple is right in between that and so we're going to take those two parts in one message in a couple of weeks and then do the, the message this morning about Jesus cleansing the temple.
Speaker 2: And so, uh, there's actually more than one cleansing of the temple and uh, as we know that because in John Chapter Two verses 14 through 16 is the first cleansing of the temple recorded in scripture and it's at the beginning of Jesus's ministry earlier on in his ministry.
Speaker 2: And the one that we're going to be looking at this morning is the second cleansing of the temple, which is four days at the end of Jesus' ministry, four days before Jesus dies on the cross.
Speaker 2: Now there could have been more than two, but we, we know there was at least two recorded in scripture.
Speaker 2: There could have been some others that times that that happened that didn't get recorded in scripture, but we know there were at least two.
Speaker 2: And so not only that, but just to remind you of last week's, we had a message on the triumphal entry.
Speaker 2: Remember just last week we looked at proceeding passage.
Speaker 2: Jesus rides in to the city of Jerusalem on a donkey.
Speaker 2: People are praising him, worshiping him, calling him the king, the Messiah, the promised one.
Speaker 2: And so we want to remember that that has just happened and man would have turned of events when he goes into the temple, how quickly things change when he goes into the temple and the whole atmosphere changes.
Speaker 2: And uh, we see the next day.
Speaker 2: And so that's a little bit of background information for you.
Speaker 2: But let's jump right in.
Speaker 2: I want to, I want to show you this morning that we're going to look at some reasons why Jesus did what he did.
Speaker 2: We're going to look at some of the surface reasons, some of the obvious reasons, but Jesus is going to go so much deeper as we get into this passage.
Speaker 2: And give some deeper reasons why this story is significant, not just for the people of this day, but for all of us here this morning.
Speaker 2: And so what I love about this passage is the way it's speaking to me is that there's so much more here than just on first glance what we see.
Speaker 2: And so we're going to jump in and so look at what it says again in Verse 15 Jesus expels the merchants, look at what it says.
Speaker 2: Then they came to Jerusalem and he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were buying and selling and the temple, and he overturned the tables of money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves.
Speaker 2: Let's pray together this morning.
Speaker 2: Dear Lord, we just thank you for today.
Speaker 2: We thank you for just being able to be in your house, Lord, to hear your word, God and Lord, I am a sinner.
Speaker 2: Lord, saved only by your grace.
Speaker 2: Lord, I do not deserve to be up here to deliver your word Lord.
Speaker 2: And so I just pray that you would cleanse me of all unrighteousness, Lord, that you would make me a clean vessel this morning to deliver your word to your people.
Speaker 2: Lord, that all across this room, this morning, Lord, that our hearts would be open, that we would desire you, lord, that we wouldn't just want to hear new things or learn something new, but it would change our lives there.
Speaker 2: There would be live changes morning in our hearts and then we would come expecting something that we can apply to our lives.
Speaker 2: And so just pray that your Holy Spirit would move in power and that hearts and minds would be open to what we're about to hear and we just ask it all in Jesus name.
Speaker 2: Amen.
Speaker 2: All right, so if we look back at this passage or these, this first verse, Jesus, we don't want to take, we don't want to make this light, okay?
Speaker 2: Jesus comes in and he lays the hammer down, right?
Speaker 2: He comes in and he cleans house.
Speaker 2: So we don't want to minimize what he did and try to pretend like it was something kind of Nice or that he wasn't really as mean as it sounded.
Speaker 2: He laid the hammer down on these people.
Speaker 2: He claimed he cleared house, he cleaned house.
Speaker 2: But what I want to point out though is that this wasn't just a rant, it wasn't a random act of violence.
Speaker 2: You know, a lot of people would maybe point to this passage and say, see, Jesus wasn't sinless.
Speaker 2: Look at how angry he gets here, what he does here.
Speaker 2: But the truth of the matter is, is that we know from mark chapter 11 verse from last week's message, it says that the night before Jesus came to the temple, he looked around and then any left, and that's a huge cue to us that this was premeditated.
Speaker 2: What he did, he was probably thinking about all night long because the night before he had come in, he had seen what was going on.
Speaker 2: He had seen the sin that was going on there and he was thinking about it and he was thinking about what he had seen.
Speaker 2: Probably all night that his actions were not random acts of violence, but they were righteous anger, godly anger of what he saw there and his actions are deliberate and well thought out when he comes into the temple the next morning and does what he does.
Speaker 2: So I wanted to make sure that we understood that first before we jump in and so the question obviously is going to be why did he do this?
Speaker 2: Like I said, we're going to start with some of the obvious surface answers.
Speaker 2: Then we're going to go a little deeper as we get in the passage, but the first reason he did this was that the temple courts were not a proper place for buying and selling after all God's house.
Speaker 2: The temple courts was supposed to be a place of prayer and a worship, but not only that, he did this because the sail for animal sacrifices were often dishonest and brought large profits.
Speaker 2: Jesus alludes this later when he calls it a dinner robber's den.
Speaker 2: They were robbing the people, the PR, the actually we know from history that a lot of the times the priest owned this operation.
Speaker 2: The Chief Priest family a lot of times owned these operations and they received a large share of the profits and what they would do is they would justify what they were doing and say that it was good because after all, we're providing a one stop shop for people, right?
Speaker 2: We're providing this place for people to come and get everything they need in one place.
Speaker 2: They don't have to go here in the city and here in the city and then buy an animal and drag the animal over to the temple.
Speaker 2: And so they were using it as an excuse to do what they were doing.
Speaker 2: But not only that, he did this because of the money changers, although they provided the required temple tax, which I'll explain in a minute, they often inflated those exchange rates.
Speaker 2: Just like you see in other countries when you go overseas, a lot of times the exchange rates are inflated, right?
Speaker 2: And they're taking advantage of the people.
Speaker 2: We know that money came from three sources and Palestine in the time of the New Testament.
Speaker 2: There was Roman money, there was Greek money and there was Jewish money.
Speaker 2: And as these people came in from the Passover, many of them were coming from different areas, different providences of the Roman Empire.
Speaker 2: And so a lot of them would have had probably most of them outside of Jerusalem would've had a Roman or Greek money.
Speaker 2: And we know from history that these, these coins, this money, this Roman and Greek money, most of the time, if not always had human faces on them.
Speaker 2: A lot of times it was the emperors or leaders or people like that.
Speaker 2: And those human faces were considered to be idolatrous idolatry in the temple.
Speaker 2: And so what's really interesting, what's really about this story is the thing that was the idol was actually what the Jewish leaders were doing, taking advantage of the people in the temple.
Speaker 2: But they would not let this money come in because they considered it idolatry because of the faces on the coins.
Speaker 2: And so people would exchange the money from Roman or Greek to Jewish Jewish money.
Speaker 2: And there was, we know from Exodus Chapter 30 verses 12 through 16 that there was a temple tax and annual temple tax required of all males.
Speaker 2: 20 years old and older and it was a half shekel, a Jewish half Jekyll that was required and they had to do that yearly.
Speaker 2: And so when they would come back for the Passover, that was the time probably most that were not in Jerusalem would pay the yearly tax.
Speaker 2: And so they would have this money exchange going on.
Speaker 2: And again, the priest, if not always, often controlled this operation.
Speaker 2: And so when you think about Jesus coming in and laying the hammer down and cleaning house and in knocking over the tables and scattering the money on the ground and driving these people out of the temple, you can imagine the Passover was the time where the greatest amount of business took place because of all the people coming in for the celebration of the Passover.
Speaker 2: Can you imagine the shot it was to their business, the shot that it was to their moneymaking operation.
Speaker 2: When Jesus did this, it was a huge blow to their business.
Speaker 2: We also see that Jesus did this because he's merchants were even taking advantage of the poorest people in society.
Speaker 2: They weren't just taking advantage of the rich.
Speaker 2: But we know they were taking advantage of the poor because in Leviticus 1421 through 22 we know that the dove was from that passage.
Speaker 2: We know the dove was one of the few sacrifices that poor people could afford.
Speaker 2: And at the end of this first uh, verse that we're looking at, it talks about how he knocked over the seats where they were selling doves.
Speaker 2: But not only that, from Luke Chapter Two verse 24, we know that when Jesus was a baby and his parents came to sacrifice and offering to the Lord to dedicate Jesus years ago they came and sacrificed a dove.
Speaker 2: So it's very possible that Jesus, his own parents who are also poor years earlier, were probably exploited and taken advantage of by some of these same people.
Speaker 2: Jesus, his own parents more than likely had to face these things.
Speaker 2: So it was probably a very well known thing that was going on for years and years in the temple.
Speaker 2: So we see Jesus does this, but look at what he does.
Speaker 2: He goes on in verse 16 and he says, and he would not permit anyone to carry merchandise through the temple.
Speaker 2: I think we have to ask the question again.
Speaker 2: Why did he do this?
Speaker 2: Well, I think there's a couple of reasons.
Speaker 2: First, the people were in the temple for the wrong reasons.
Speaker 2: There's a map that is going to pop up behind me.
Speaker 2: I want you to at that map.
Speaker 2: And that map is a map of what they believe Jerusalem looked like in the time of Jesus and where the temple was in relation to the city.
Speaker 2: And you can see that the temple was a huge, huge part of the city.
Speaker 2: In fact, I did some research to see if you start at one corner of the temple and you were to walk all the way around the temple based on what we know the dimensions of the temple were, it would take about a mile to get all the way around the temple.
Speaker 2: So people were coming from the Mount of olives, or if they were, uh, you know, carrying goods or equipment through, even if they went halfway around the temple to get to the other side of the city, it would have, it would have been about a half a mile.
Speaker 2: And so a lot of people were using the temple court.
Speaker 2: That is where all this is going on as a shortcut and a matter of convenience to get through the city, especially those that were carrying a lot of goods and equipment.
Speaker 2: And so Jesus stops this practice to preserve the temple as a holy place of worship.
Speaker 2: It's not meant for a convenience or a shortcut for you wherever you're going.
Speaker 2: This is God's house.
Speaker 2: It's a place of prayer and a place of worship.
Speaker 2: So these are all surface reasons why Jesus did what he did.
Speaker 2: They're all important reasons, they're good reasons, but what he did go so much deeper for the people in that day and for us today.
Speaker 2: And so we're going to see how Jesus explains his actions using the Old Testament.
Speaker 2: Look at what it says in verse 17.
Speaker 2: So then he began to teach and and say to them, is it not written?
Speaker 2: My house should be called the house of prayer for all the nations, but you have made it a den or a robber's den.
Speaker 2: So Jesus explains his actions using the Old Testament.
Speaker 2: The first, there's a lot in this short sentence.
Speaker 2: The first part is where he says, my house shall be how shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations.
Speaker 2: That is actually a quote from Isaiah 56 seven let me re read to you what it says.
Speaker 2: It says, even those I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer.
Speaker 2: Their burnt offerings and their salary sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar for my house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.
Speaker 2: So he's quoting from Isaiah 56 seven the Jews saw the temple mainly as a place of sacrifice.
Speaker 2: After all, their whole operation was all about the animal sacrifices and buying the animals and exchanging the money for the temple tax and all those kinds of things.
Speaker 2: But Jesus saw this as a place of prayer.
Speaker 2: In fact, we know from Psalm one 41 one and two the true prayer is in of itself a sacrifice to God.
Speaker 2: That Jesus sees the heart.
Speaker 2: He sees the sacrifice through prayer, not just, it's not just about the physical animal sacrifice.
Speaker 2: So this phrase for all nations, there's so much deeper meaning here at keys in on the temple also being for the gentiles, both in 1117 in this passage but also in Isaiah 56 seven we see that at the beginning of that Isaiah 56 seven it says even those well who are those that is talking about, if you look at the verse or two right before that is talking about foreigners is talking about gentiles also have a place in the temple.
Speaker 2: Even back in the Old Testament, we know that this religious market was set up in the court of the gentiles.
Speaker 2: There was set up in the place.
Speaker 2: The gentiles worshiped the selling of merchandise that pushed the gentiles from the outer court of the temple.
Speaker 2: And this was a big, big deal to Jesus that this, this deprive the gentiles of the only place where they were allowed to work worship.
Speaker 2: In this time when it came to the temple, Jesus was making a huge statement by what he did in regard to the gentiles.
Speaker 2: This should have been a place for praying and worship, but instead it became a place of them praying on the people and making the people pay for goods and services.
Speaker 2: So that's the first phrase he explained explains from the Old Testament and Isaiah 56 seven but then the next phrase, but you have made it a robber's den, is actually from Jeremiah seven 11 look at what Jeremiah seven 11 says, has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your site.
Speaker 2: The old I even I have seen it, declares the Lord.
Speaker 2: A robber's den by very definition, is the place thieves go or robbers go to hide when they have committed a crime.
Speaker 2: And what's interesting that these, these religious leaders were hiding under the veil of worship.
Speaker 2: They were hiding in the house of God.
Speaker 2: They were hiding their sins and their crimes.
Speaker 2: In the name of worship in the temple, the religious leaders were using the worship of God as a cover for their sins.
Speaker 2: You see, they trusted in ritual.
Speaker 2: They trusted in all these animal sacrifices, but what they didn't realize was that God was unimpressed unimpressed by this because he cared for the hearts of people to love him and to love others.
Speaker 2: But what's interesting about Jeremiah seven is that they also took what he said is a very, very serious threat, a very serious threat because the rest of Jeremiah seven prophesize God's destruction on Solomon's Temple, and they would have understood that.
Speaker 2: They would have known the Old Testament, I mean as well as memorized.
Speaker 2: They wouldn't have known it, these religious leaders as well as anybody, and they would have known immediately that Jesus was making a threat about the temple.
Speaker 2: The here is noted this and the veil threat that it implied then it caused them to fear Jesus greatly.
Speaker 2: After all, Jesus was challenging everything that they knew, everything that they loved and everything that they chair cherished.
Speaker 2: And he began to fulfill this prophecy in Jeremiah seven by not only addressing the sin in the temple, but then going on four days later to die for the sins of the world and establish a new covenant and a new temple, which was his body.
Speaker 2: The old way of doing things would be gone in just a few days.
Speaker 2: The old sacrifice in the temple, the old animal sacrifice, the old covenant, the Old Temple would be gone and they would say no longer have access to the father and to forgiveness through the sacrifice at the temple, but through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ's body that was broken on the cross for the sins of the world.
Speaker 2: We know this, even Jesus gives a hint of this in John Chapter two at the first cleansing of the temple that I mentioned earlier in the background information, it says in John 19 to 19 after Jesus was questioned about what he was doing, listen to what he says.
Speaker 2: Jesus answered them, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
Speaker 2: Does that sound familiar?
Speaker 2: You've heard that verse before.
Speaker 2: Jesus was talking about not the destruction of the physical temple, but he was talking about the destruction of his body and that three days later he would raise from the dead.
Speaker 2: And we know that the temple was actually destroyed physically in 78 d so it's kind of a double prophecy, but what he's talking about is his body, the temple of his body being destroyed on the cross, and the religious leaders knew the scriptures.
Speaker 2: They knew what he was referencing.
Speaker 2: They would have known exactly what he was saying in some ways, but at the same time they completely missed what he was saying.
Speaker 2: And the religious leaders begin to plot to destroy him.
Speaker 2: Look at what it says in verse 18 the chief priests and scribes heard this and began seeking how to destroy him for they were afraid of him, for the whole crowd was astonished at his teachings.
Speaker 2: We know from Luke Chapter 19 and a parallel passage verses 45 through 48 that this was the first day that Jesus came into the temple.
Speaker 2: He cleared it out, but he didn't run away after that.
Speaker 2: He stayed and did some other things that day.
Speaker 2: And then he comes back for several days after, before he dies on the cross and begins to continue to teach in the temple.
Speaker 2: And they began to plot to destroy them this first day.
Speaker 2: And it continued to escalate every day that he came back to teach in the temple before he died.
Speaker 2: This had to have been one of the major factors, one of the major reasons the minds of the religious leaders, why they had decided to kill Jesus, the final Straw that made them want to crucify him.
Speaker 2: And so the question has to be why do they want to destroy him?
Speaker 2: Why in the world would they want to destroy him?
Speaker 2: And I think there's three obvious reasons.
Speaker 2: The first one is that he threatened their interests, their money making operation was hit.
Speaker 2: They took a huge blow to their business because of what he did.
Speaker 2: But it went so much deeper than that.
Speaker 2: Expelling the Jews from the temple was viewed as expelling them from the very presence and favor of God.
Speaker 2: It was believed that there could be no Judaism without the temple.
Speaker 2: That's how crucial the temple was to the Judaism in that day, much like it's revered today, even today.
Speaker 2: And so this was a huge insult when they expelled the people from the temple when he expelled them from the temple.
Speaker 2: So he threatened their interest, but he also threatened their authority.
Speaker 2: He threatened their authority.
Speaker 2: All the religious leaders knew when Jesus did what he did, that he was claiming and authority that was much higher than theirs.
Speaker 2: They knew that both the Sadducees, who are the chief priest and the Pharisees, who were the scribes combined now in the resentment against Jesus, we know earlier in mark, the Pharisees and the Herodians had already began to plot to kill him, but now they wanted to utterly destroy him, and I think that's significant.
Speaker 2: They don't just want to kill him.
Speaker 2: They wanted to destroy him.
Speaker 2: They want to stamp out his name in influences as great spiritual energy from the world to completely erase him from history.
Speaker 2: And this action would have raised him to the highest level of fury.
Speaker 2: So he see that he threatened their interests.
Speaker 2: We see that he threatened their authority, but we also see that he threatened there influence and control.
Speaker 2: Remember the people had just shown their incredible love for Jesus through the triumphal entry.
Speaker 2: Come coming in, riding on a donkey, then waving palm branches, calling him the king of the Jews, calling him the Messiah, saying who he was.
Speaker 2: That has just happened the night before, the day before.
Speaker 2: And we see that the people were showing their love for Jesus.
Speaker 2: And another parallel passage in Matthew Chapter 2114 through 16 we know that actually that same day after he cleared the temple, after the story that we're just talking about, that same day he goes on to heal people in the temple.
Speaker 2: Right after he did what he did, he goes on to heal people and then children begin to praise him again until say that he is the Messiah, the king.
Speaker 2: And so we see that they were afraid of is popularity.
Speaker 2: Love from the crowd, cause them to fear Jesus greatly.
Speaker 2: So these are all things that were going on.
Speaker 2: These are all things that were happening, but we can hear a lot of things.
Speaker 2: We can hear a lot of information.
Speaker 2: But this morning, if what we hear, does it change our lives?
Speaker 2: If it's does it transform us, then we have wasted our time.
Speaker 2: And so this morning I want to give you some application for us today and why does this matter to us?
Speaker 2: How should it impact our life?
Speaker 2: How should it change our lives this morning?
Speaker 2: And the first thing that I want you to see this morning is that we cannot miss the king.
Speaker 2: Do not miss the king.
Speaker 2: They should have recognized the king by what he did in the Old Testament.
Speaker 2: After all, all good kings of Judah would cleanse the temple.
Speaker 2: They knew this, they knew this history.
Speaker 2: And even in Malakai three one through four, it prophesies that the coming Messiah would also cleanse the temple.
Speaker 2: The signs were everywhere, but they missed it.
Speaker 2: You know, that reminds me of us today.
Speaker 2: So many times we know the word of God.
Speaker 2: We sit in church, we hear God's word preached.
Speaker 2: We're in a connect group.
Speaker 2: We're in equip classes.
Speaker 2: We're all in all these things, but yet so many times it doesn't change us.
Speaker 2: It doesn't sink in and change our lives.
Speaker 2: Let us not miss the king.
Speaker 2: If you are here this morning and you have never received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, don't leave today.
Speaker 2: Do not miss him as the Pharisees and the Sadducees did, but receive him today before you leave.
Speaker 2: The other thing we see for application this morning is that Jesus came to provide salvation for everyone.
Speaker 2: He came for everyone by clearing out the traders, he, Jesus literally and symbolically provided a place for gentiles in the temple of God, just as Solomon did when he dedicated the first temple.
Speaker 2: This act was also foreshadowing what would happen four days later when he would lay his life down on the cross, not just for the Jews, but also for the gentiles.
Speaker 2: If you are here this morning and you're not Jewish, then you're a gentile.
Speaker 2: This was a statement that Jesus Christ came for you as well came for you to worship God and to pray to God and to serve him and to love him, but also by his death on the cross.
Speaker 2: We see that.
Speaker 2: We know for Mark Chapter 15 verses 38 what happens, it says that whenever Jesus died on the cross in the holy of holies, the t, the temple, the curtain of the holy of holies was ripped from top to bottom, showing that God is the only one that could have done that rip from top to bottom, signifying that there would no longer be a divide between status of people in the temple, that there would no longer be on people, whether they were Jews or gentiles and how they could worship God, but that all people could come to Jesus Christ and know him as Lord and Savior because of what he's done.
Speaker 2: And so we see that Jesus came to provide salvation for everyone.
Speaker 2: This would have been especially relevant to Mark's initial audience, the Romans that he wrote the book of Mark Too, because it shows that, that an opportunity to know Jesus just as the Jews, you know, on my trip, I got to see some incredible things.
Speaker 2: And, and uh, I was with pastor Paul and Kenya the first few days and we got to go and see his ministry there.
Speaker 2: And over decades he has a story a lot like Jonah and Nineveh.
Speaker 2: God had called him after he got out of Bible College.
Speaker 2: God had called him to go to the people group that was his enemy, to go to a tribe of people that were not his tribe, that would be considered enemies of his tribe.
Speaker 2: And he fought it for a while, but he eventually gave in and did what God had called him to do and realized that this tribe, this group of people were probably the least civilized in that they were the people that lived the most out in the bush, away from normal civil civilization.
Speaker 2: And then no one else was going to these people.
Speaker 2: And he went to these people.
Speaker 2: And today he told me while I was with him today, there are about 85,000 Masai Christians because of the ministry that he began decades ago.
Speaker 2: Can you imagine that what God has done through him and his ministry and we know that these people that he's ministered to, uh, he had to start with the chief at the very beginning of his ministry and ask permission to begin to share Christ and to go around.
Speaker 2: And the chief was so skeptical that he put another, uh, Maasai Warrior at the time with him to watch him and to make sure he didn't say anything he shouldn't say.
Speaker 2: And over the years that Maasai Warrior has become his right hand man.
Speaker 2: He got saved and he's been a champion for the Gospel with Pastor Paul and his name is elder Paul.
Speaker 2: And so you had the two.
Speaker 2: Paul's going around serving the Lord together.
Speaker 2: They've, they have 295 churches now.
Speaker 2: 47 of those churches have buildings.
Speaker 2: The rest still don't even have a building.
Speaker 2: But Central Church over the years with the teams that have went and had been responsible for many of those 47 buildings being built, he's trained over 400 pastors to serve in those churches.
Speaker 2: And God has done an incredible thing.
Speaker 2: And so while I was there, I want to show you a few pictures.
Speaker 2: There's a man that me and Ken roll under with in this first picture and that man, more than likely, he's lived in the bushes whole life and Jesus Christ came for him.
Speaker 2: Then you see a woman and her child, and I got to go to their house and to see where they live.
Speaker 2: And it was so humbling to see one of the poorest conditions I've ever seen in my life.
Speaker 2: And this lady and her baby, and they live there with their husband.
Speaker 2: You'll see the next picture is a picture of the, the Haute that they live in.
Speaker 2: It was made out of Animal Dung and sticks.
Speaker 2: It's a very small hut with very, very little inside.
Speaker 2: They had a fire going inside where they were breathing in the smoke.
Speaker 2: There were flies everywhere.
Speaker 2: There was, uh, just such amount of poverty that it was so humbling.
Speaker 2: It was so sad to see.
Speaker 2: But yet these people are so happy because of what they have in Christ.
Speaker 2: And we saw that and then we went to a place and, uh, were able to go out to this field and we didn't really know what we were doing or what, where we are going.
Speaker 2: And we just kinda falling pastor Paul's lead and we get out to this field and we begin to hear singing off in the distance and we look out and there's this huge group of people under this tree singing and there's, there's children and there's adults.
Speaker 2: And the next picture is the picture of some of the children that were singing and dancing under this tree.
Speaker 2: And we found out this is a church that doesn't yet have a building.
Speaker 2: How cool would it be if Sunday central could help build a building there as well?
Speaker 2: But there are a group of people worshiping God out in the Bush and they don't even have a building.
Speaker 2: And Jesus came for those people as well, the forgotten tribes of Africa.
Speaker 2: He came for and then I went to Ethiopia and I got to spend some time with Joe and Karen Bridges our missionaries there and they work with the street children and Adis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia.
Speaker 2: They work with the street children.
Speaker 2: There are many of the children come from places out in the out in the Bush or outside of the city and they think coming to the city is what's going to really help them make it in life.
Speaker 2: Or maybe they have siblings that, there's all different kinds of situations, but maybe they have siblings.
Speaker 2: So many siblings, they're not getting the attention that they need from their parents until they run away from home.
Speaker 2: And a lot of times they find that street life is not what they thought it was going to be in.
Speaker 2: Many of them live on the street and live in horrible conditions their whole lives.
Speaker 2: And I got to see the program that Joe and Karen is a are a part of and how they're taking these kids off the street and sharing the gospel with them.
Speaker 2: And the last picture is of the seven boys that are currently in the program that came off the street, and these kids are s you wouldn't believe how hungry they are for love and attention.
Speaker 2: I mean, I first day out, I go in and I walk in and they just swarmed me and bear hug me.
Speaker 2: All seven of them never met him in my life and they have so much need for love and they're getting the love of Christ because Jesus came and died for them.
Speaker 3: Well,
Speaker 2: so we see all of these things, but we see that he came to provide salvation for everyone, but we see that we must follow his example and take the gospel to the whole world.
Speaker 2: The court of the gentiles was the one place that incredible evangelism and mission should have been going on.
Speaker 2: After all these people came to them, these gentiles came to the Jewish temple just as our neighbors in our backyard are right there, and we have an opportunity in two weeks to share the love of Christ in our own backyard.
Speaker 2: They should have done the same thing in the temple.
Speaker 2: This act was a foreshadow or we see that this, this whole situation there had so much opportunity to do the serious work, but could you imagine what the people would have thought when they came into the temple and they saw what was going on there, how much it would have turned them off from the Gospel?
Speaker 2: The grace of God is so great, we must share it with the world who is just as desperate for it as we are.
Speaker 2: We were not any better than anybody else because we live in the United States.
Speaker 2: All we we are is that we have an obligation to do more because we have so many more resources than a lot of the people in the rest of the world.
Speaker 2: Even the poorest people in our country are rich in most countries and that means that God has given us resources to give back to him, to use for him to take the Gospel to the whole world of that.
Speaker 2: Some of these people that I've shown you, but not only that, the greatest thing we have to give us our salvation, what God has done for us, we are called to give it away.
Speaker 2: So the last point is that the church must cherish the implications of this story.
Speaker 2: If Jesus responded like this to an old earthly temple, can you imagine how he would respond to the church, his bride?
Speaker 2: If we are not about the things of God, if we are doing things like they were doing in the temple and we're doing everything but what God has called us to do, if we fall into that, we should be terrified of the judgement of God when we go astray.
Speaker 2: And so in conclusion, I want to, I want to ask you three questions.
Speaker 2: First is those that are here this morning that don't know Christ.
Speaker 2: If you're here this morning and you do not know Christ as your Lord and Savior, do not miss the king this morning there are people that are going to be down at the front.
Speaker 2: They're going to be people in the back and they would love to pray with you and show you how you can ask Christ to forgive you of your sins and to come into your life and in your heart and be the lord of your life.
Speaker 2: Be the savior of your life and you can begin to walk with him this morning.
Speaker 2: The second group I want to speak to as Christians this morning, what are you doing to follow his example of taking the Gospel to the world?
Speaker 2: We have been given so much in our country.
Speaker 2: What are we doing as Christians to take the Gospel to the world?
Speaker 2: Whether it's going to Africa, maybe you can't go to Africa, but you can come in two weeks and be a part of the block party where we're reaching people from all over the world in our backyard.
Speaker 2: You can come and be a part of the backpack outreach in a few weeks to help people in need in our community.
Speaker 2: Show them the love of Christ.
Speaker 2: What are we doing to follow his example is what we just heard.
Speaker 2: Is it changing us?
Speaker 2: Is it changing?
Speaker 2: What we're doing and how we're living in the things that we say and do.
Speaker 2: And then the last group of church leaders, and I'm speaking to myself on this one, whether you're here today and you're a pastor, you're a staff member, maybe you're an elder, maybe you're a lay leader in teaching a class or and some other kinds of leadership.
Speaker 2: The Bible says that we will be judged more strictly because of the responsibility that God has given us.
Speaker 2: And the question I think we have to ask all of ourselves, there are some here that may be are not leaders.
Speaker 2: That should be.
Speaker 2: And now honestly, all of us can lead in some way whether we think we're a leader or not.
Speaker 2: So I think what God is saying to all of us is how can we be a church that is less about us and the things of the world and more about following Jesus through worship, through prayer, through evangelism, through discipleship, through missions.
Speaker 2: How can this message that Jesus came for us, he came for all of the gentiles.
Speaker 2: How can this message transform our lives in our hearts this morning?
Speaker 2: And so this morning I encourage you to follow the Lord and his Holy Spirit.
Speaker 2: Don't leave when we pray.
Speaker 2: Don't leave early to go to lunch.
Speaker 2: Stay and do business with God and ask the Lord, God, what are you saying to me this morning?
Speaker 2: How can this passage not just be heard by me, but how can it change what you want to do in my life, in my heart?
Speaker 2: So let's pray together as we go into a time of invitation.
Speaker 2: Dear God, we thank you so much for today.
Speaker 2: We thank you for this word that you've given us, Lord, in that it's, there's a lot of good things going on, but you go so much deeper, Lord, and you talk about how you came for all of us in you.
Speaker 2: You fight for us, God in this story and even today that you want all to come to you and Lord, I pray that we will be about your business in your house, God.
Speaker 2: Then we would do what you called us to do, Lord.
Speaker 2: That your Holy Spirit would move in this place.
Speaker 2: That we would be receptive.
Speaker 2: Lord.
Speaker 2: Whether that means where we're at in our pews, it means coming down to just seek your face and what you have for us, God, that we would be obedient and we would be at church.
Speaker 2: That is about taking the gospel to the world
Speaker 4: [inaudible]
Speaker 2: and this morning, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would move the you and move in a mighty way.
Speaker 2: That you would go across this room and every heart and life and that you would be glorified in everything that's done in that obedience would happen this morning in every person's life.
Speaker 2: Whatever it is you're telling each of us to do that we will be obedient during this time and we just ask it all
Speaker 4: in Jesus' name.
Speaker 4: Amen.