Abridged Worship – May 25, 2025

Amid Jesus’ righteous frustration with the temple court being corrupted by greed, Jesus makes reference to passage from Isaiah: My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations. These words come from a wider passage which speaks about how foreigners from other nations, if they loved God, if they are devoted to Him and keep the law of Sabbath, would be welcome to the Holy Mountain, the temple of God. The temple, though established through Israel, should be a house of prayer for all people to come and encounter a relationship with God.  

So, I think explaining this command, which is a reference to an Old Testament command, is simple enough. The temple should be an accessible place for those who love God to come and be with God, to praise and raise prayer, and to be with a community of believers. That is the intent of the temple and should be the foundation of our churches.  

But to get a greater understanding, we need to break this down further.  

To understand the temple, and its significance we need to go back to the Garden. God originally creates humanity in a high place with Him. Humanity and God were to dwell together in this high holy place – forever in communion with each other. As you know, humanity rejected this relationship, due to temptation and chose their own authority and trusted the lies of the tempter over God, falling to pride and idolatry. Therefore the first humans were removed from this high holy place, the garden Eden.  

But though God rightfully removed us from the garden, God was not done with us yet. God loves humanity so God moved to correct our rejection by creating through the line of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob a covenantal people who will stay in relationship with him, to build a bridge back toward a communion with Him once again for all humanity.  

The covenantal law would be established through this linage and, as part of it, the tabernacle in the center of which God’s presence would dwell. The challenge for humanity is that God’ presence is intense, like a purifying fire, so the people were given that covenantal law to make it possible for them to ensure God’s purifying light. The law made a way for the people to atone for sin and make themselves pure enough to endure the very presence of God with them. 

The tabernacle would eventually be replaced by a grander vision. The temple was to be a greater tabernacle. The temple, which was later built by King Solomon in Jerusalem, would become a central place for the covenantal people to pray, worship, and atone, and would ultimately be a guiding star for all nations to come and encounter God. The temple’s purpose from God was to conserve and preserve a connection between God and humanity.  

Although anything run by people has a tendency to become polluted. As the Temple would become the sole place for sacrifices for atonement, replacing the tabernacle, the Jews would have to pilgrim to the temple. This created a bottleneck effect for people to encounter God. Now the people who controlled the temple could control people’s relationship with God. Those who sold goods for the temple rituals could make a sharp buck. And eventually the temple, by the corruption of humanity, takes a monopoly on the faithful Jewish person, and the house of prayer becomes a den of thieves. What was supposed to be a place of communion with God, to be like the garden, had been filled with snakes. This is what Jesus was walking into. A monument of God’s promise and praiseworthiness, soiled by the vanity of humanity.  

But God is eternally wise and is already on the move. In the Gospel John, when Jesus confronts this corruption in the temple, the temple authority asks Jesus what proof He has that he has an authority to critique the temple in such a manner.  Jesus responds with “destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up”. Jesus of course if foreshadowing His death and resurrection, but the crowd gets confused thinking he is speaking about the rocks and stones of the temple in Jerusalem. In this poetic exchange, God unveils a truth that what the temple offered, and what the tabernacle offered before, was about to shift into the person of the Christ. Jesus Christ would become the temple to encounter God, to worship and pray, and to atone for sins. And little did anyone know when Jesus said this that Jesus becoming the slain lamb would be the final sacrifice to atone for all sins. Jesus becomes in history the ultimate temple: the material presence which contains the eternal God, and Jesus too would become the ultimate sacrifice for all sin.  

So what does it mean when Jesus supersedes the temple? People took the tabernaclewith them and made pilgrimage to the temple. What does it mean or look like in Jesus? To answer this, think about the woman at the well. Jesus says to her in their conversation: believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem […] a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must in the Spirit and in truth.  

By Christ, and then through the Spirit, all that the temple and the tabernacle before it did can now be accomplished through the Spirit, by Christ’s Lordship and Sacrifice, to connect us back to God, bringing us closer to a relationship with God, as it was meant to be. By the Spirit, our faithful lives become an embracing of the communion with God.  

I like to think of it this way. When we welcome God into our hearts, we become like little temples, we become little tabernacles. And in that case, should our lives not be houses of prayer, a living embodiment of praise, a humble embracing of atonement and repentance, mercy and forgiveness. Should we not, as faithful followers worship along with each breath we take, and become of light which displays the truth of the Gospel, the Love of God, which invites people from all nations to come and know God, to know Jesus, to ultimately have them too welcome God into their hearts, that another dwelling place of God can be born by the Spirit. So that by the Spirit, God’s truth can occupy more places on this earth, that it can dwell within more people in this world. 

By the Spirit, we could be on the highest mountain, in the deepest ditch, we can be from any nation, tribe, speak any language, and if we know Jesus, if we have the Spirit, the nature of what the temple was, by the grace of God we can find, know, and embrace.  

And it goes further, for here is the promise we encounter in the Bible: God doesn’t stop at this Spiritual revival of life, God wants it all for us. He wants us to be connected, in relationship with him both in Spirit and in creation. So, there is more to come. One day the world will be made new; sin, rebellion, evil, and darkness will be removed and a new reality will be made, we will be in communion with God once again. But that time we will appreciate what that means; no temptation will overcome that unity. The garden communion will be restored and to that I say: Hallelujah, God is good.  

Praise God who continues to pursue us. Praise God who continually seeks to restore us. Praise God who commands us to keep His house, His temple, His church a place where all people, all nations can come and encounter his amazing love and grace.  
 
let us pray…   

The world is a live with the sounds of creation, creation sings to the glory and majesty of our Lord, let us this day sing too, sing and raise our praises. Amen.

Homework: