I'm going to jump back to Colossians for next week, but this week I thought I would preach a sermon that I did years ago when I covered the Gospel of Matthew. And it's a sermon that I think will help us to kind of get off on the right foot, so to speak, in the new building. I know it's not a new building, but the newly renovated sanctuary. Since this is our first sanctuary, first service in the new sanctuary, I really want us to focus on what it is that should be central to our lives, and it's worship. It's worship and praise. And I think it's important for us to kind of reorient ourselves as we start out in this sanctuary, in this room, to meet and to worship and to praise God, to understand the power of praise as to what it is we're doing here. The power and the centrality of praise in God's Word. You'll notice in this context here, Jesus had gone to the temple and found it full of thieves, full of robbers, full of people who were cheating and stealing, full of people who were trading and bartering, taking advantage especially of the poor. You see that because he mentions those who were selling doves. It was as if that's the last straw because dove was the sacrifice that was to be given by those who were poor. So the priests and the Sadducees and the Pharisees and the leaders of the land had now transformed God's place into a place of thieves, a den of robbers. In fact, a den of robbers, because it became a haven, get this now, because this is particularly interesting, a haven or a getaway for people to do what they did immorally and justify it as if it were moral. They deliberately used the temple area so that they could say they were doing the work of the Lord. After all, people needed sacrifices, they needed doves, they needed lambs, they needed goats, they needed all the kinds of things that they had to get in order to gain access to God. So it was the worst kind of thievery and robbery that you could think of. Because it was robbery and thievery that barred access to the place of God, where God said he wanted to be with his people. The Sadducees and the religious leaders of Israel were saying, we don't want you to come unless we benefit from it. And you'll notice that what happens here, and it's interesting because the focus of this is where Jesus confronts them, turns over the temple, or the money changers, but then he confronts them and he quotes Psalm 8. Notice what he says. Let me repeat Psalm 8. He says, O Lord, O Lord, how excellent is your name, this is the psalm, for you have set your glory above the heavens. Verse 2, now this is where Jesus quotes. I find it fascinating, because it's kind of a strange psalm in one sense, and I hope you'll understand it and appreciate it by the end of the sermon. He says, out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants, you have ordained strength. You have ordained strength because of your enemies. that you may silence the enemy and the avengers." In other words, he's saying, from the likes of babes and infants, praise will go forth, and it is precisely that praise that will silence the enemies. And that's an odd bit in terms of strategy. strategery for warfare against the evil one. Of all the things that were going on in the world and that continue to go on in the world, I would challenge you that the most potent thing we can do to challenge the enemy, to stop the evil, is to praise the Lord. It may sound odd, it may sound even weak, and I hope it does sound weak in a sense, because that's precisely what Jesus was doing. That's one of the characteristics of Jesus' ministry, is that he challenged the wisdom of the world with the weakness of the gospel, because it was through the weakness of the gospel that the strength of God was displayed most pointedly. And in this case, you might think, well, how on earth could a few children singing praise to God have any strength or any power? First, let's notice the context. The context is the temple. Central to the life of Israel was the temple. Central to the life of Israel in the wilderness was the tabernacle. In fact, all the tribes were stationed strategically around the tabernacle. Every tribe had its place, so that the tabernacle was the place of the going in and coming out of all of life. Your tent, your living quarters, was to face the tabernacle concentrically, so that as you went in and came out, you were reminded that central to your life, central to who you were, central to having been called out and become a nation, was the Lord God of Israel who met there. so that it was coming to God, worshipping God, and praise to God, and making Him central to your life that was the very structure of the nation of Israel as they were called out of Egypt. It wasn't too long ago, I think I mentioned this, that when the Israelites were called out of Egypt, they went out in military array as conquering hosts, even though they had not raised a finger in terms of military strategy. They left Egypt, having conquered Egypt. How? Because they praised the Lord. They prayed, and God heard and rescued them. And you'll notice, and I'll remind you of this at the end, it was just a few of them praying. It wasn't like the whole nation of Israel said, oh, God help us. Most of them were like, get Moses out of here. We don't need this guy stirring up trouble. I'm fine being a slave. Cultures can become like that. Cultures can be saying, I'm fine being a slave. Leave me alone. It looks like most of Israel in the times of their captivity said, it's fine to be a slave as long as I get enough to eat, as long as I can have a fairly safe place to live, I'm fine being a slave of the state. There was a handful of people that said, we weren't intended to be like this. We weren't intended to be slaves in Egypt. We were intended to worship God and we can't worship God. And you'll note that that's exactly what Moses said. Let my people go that they may worship. He didn't say, let my people go so they can become a political paradigm for liberation all throughout the rest of the earth. He said, let my people go that they might worship me. They can't worship when they're enslaved in Egypt. So God rescued them and God gave them the tabernacle. And when he took them into the land, central to their life then was the Jerusalem temple. Central to the life of the people of God was the time when they got to go meet with him. And they got to praise him and pray. And the temple that Jesus is going into at this particular time is Herod's temple. It was the third temple that was built. Solomon's, Zerubbabel's, and then Herod's. As the temples had come and gone, this was probably the largest, most fantastic temple that had been built. Perhaps nine acres worth of a temple complex that included ascending colonnades and areas outside of the temple where people could mingle. Probably where they were when Jesus cleared out the money changers. Because Jesus came, you see, and he had found deep corruption. How did he know that the nation was corrupt? Because central to their life should be God-centered worship. And yet, central to their life was selfishness and corruption. There's something to think about here. Central to the life of Israel was Israel, rather than God. It's easy to happen, isn't it? Central to your life, this is a challenge. I find this is a scriptural challenge almost every sermon I preach. We tend to actually believe, can you believe this? We actually think that our lives is about us. And that's the central problem. That's the challenge of living under God, for God, and making God central to our lives, is that we should see God as central. And this worship service, and many like them, where two or three are gathered together in the name of Jesus Christ, God comes to be with them. And he reminds them through a variety of special ways, through the songs we sing to him and each other, through the sacraments that you receive. He used to be up there, now it's here. Everything's changed. The sacraments that we receive, God gives to us to remind us that our ultimate hope, our ultimate food, our ultimate drink is Jesus Christ. Is that the way you think? You see, Jesus is challenging his people here, and I think in ways that when I, years ago when I preached in Matthew, I missed it a little bit. I sort of went over it, and I've gone back to it and thought, wow, that's profound. Of all the ways that people, the people of God could be instructed to do the greatest work in this world is in praise and worship. It doesn't seem right. It seems like we should be more active. This has been an ongoing challenge that I've had with some of you. I know we should praise and worship and all that jazz, but really the real work's out there. No, the real work is in here! And if the real work here is done, out there it's going to fall into place, you see. This is central. The people of God had turned away from God, and corruption was at the center of their lives. They were only worried about dealing and wheeling and dealing, and they were taking advantage of the poor and the needy. They didn't give a thought to it. In fact, the priests and the temple guards were all about taking advantage of the poor. The business of the temple had become like a carnival. like a state fair. This was around Passover time, so people were coming from all over the world. You've got to understand how angry these guys would have been, because this was their best year. It would be like a jeweler and having someone shut down your store around Christmas or Valentine's Day. Those two things were taken away from you. Certain businesses don't do anything else the rest of the year. Some of these people, these corrupt men, were thriving on this particular event, even though this particular event was to remind them of redemption. And the only hope they had through redemption from the Lord. Instead, it had been like a carnival. And even the poor were being taken advantage of. The selling of doves in particular, as I mentioned. Why would this be important? If you draw your mind to the sacrificial system, we see that there were levels of sacrifices demanded. The more money you had, the greater your gift should be. The less you had, the lower the gift in terms of graduated sacrificial service. There was a provision of comfort and relief. Do you realize that you were supposed to be able to get a dove given to you if you couldn't afford anything? The priests were to provide that for you. There were even cities in Jerusalem that were entirely dedicated. They're finding tells or digs right now where there were entire cities dedicated to nothing else but they would raise and sell pigeons to Israel. Huge business. In fact, the doves were to be given to the poor, so that even if you came empty-handed, the God's people would give you something to give to God. That was something that particularly made Jesus angry, because he's like, the very gatekeepers, the very people who were supposed to be sort of guarding the gate, keeping the enemies at bay, keeping the wicked, had invited the wicked in and were participating in the corruption. It provoked Jesus to anger. And yes, if you have any pacifist inclinations, violence. It's kind of a cool scene. I mean, honestly, Jesus was going around with a whip. He was throwing around tables and beating people. He was indignant because, but he was indignant, I will remind you, before you go around throwing tables and making whips, or when you get home. He was indignant because worship had been corrupted. He was indignant because worship had been corrupted. What provoked Jesus to this? Well, he was provoked because he had a holy jealousy for God's worship. Do you? When you think about what the Israelite was to do, when you think about how their life was to be structured, how our lives are to be structured around this particular meeting, around worship with God, how everything, the warmth and the warmth, the coming in and the going out of our lives is to be structured around things that we do here. Our money belongs to God, so when we come here, we tie it to Him. So when we go out into this world, our money will have to line up under the discipline of the Lord, because we love Him. Our time should be structured around worship, the going in and the coming out of worship, so that we structure our lives around God, and nothing else. You see, if you begin to think about the centrality of worship, and by that and through that, the centrality of praise, what is it that we do here primarily? We praise the Lord. It's not like we really come and—sometimes American Christians have confused a lot of activity with a lot of success. Honestly, what do you come and bring to the Lord? Empty hands. It's the posture of praise in a lot of circles. It's the posture of praise you see in the Scriptures. Empty hands. The posture that you oftentimes see in Scripture is... I was just with someone this week when I saw this. It was fascinating. A lot of people come before the Lord and raise their hands, but it's usually like this. You are not going to have this. The posture of God's people usually isn't like this either. In Scripture, when you look at the passages where God's people come, they raise their hands like this, because they've got nothing to give. And all they're doing is asking for something to be given them. That's the posture. That's not all that active of a posture in that sense. In other words, it doesn't require a big program to come before the Lord and praise Him. Yet that looks like here what Jesus is after as he goes through and he quotes two different Old Testament verses throughout this passage, Isaiah 56 and Jeremiah 7, when he speaks about the house of the Lord as the house of prayer for the nation. John Calvin says this, he says, what was written by Isaiah agreed with the circumstances in Jesus' time, for in that passage is predicted the calling of the Gentiles. Isaiah was therefore speaking of the promises that God would grant, not only that the temple would recover its original splendor, but likewise that all the nations would begin to flow to it, and that the whole world would agree in truth and with sincere piety around God. He speaks no doubt metaphorically for the spiritual worship of God, says Calvin, which was to exist under the reign of Jesus Christ, is shadowed out by the prophets under the figures of the law when he declares the temple be a place of prayer for the nation. This, he says, is a mode of expression equivalent to saying that the nations must be gathered into the Church of Jesus Christ, and that with one voice they would worship the true and living God, along with the children of Abraham. But then he mentions the temple so far as then a visible abode of religion. Christ justly approaches the Jews in having applied it totally different purposes from those which they had been dedicated. Calvin says what he's talking about here is the future of when the Church will be a house, a place of prayer where all the nations will go. And by prayer, he's using a word, sometimes it's called synecdoche, or it's a word that means one word that signifies others, mainly worship. And the word prayer indicates all that we do in worship, which includes singing and praising Him and giving to Him offerings and listening to Him and responding to Him in worship. Isaiah 56, 6 says, also the sons of the foreigner will join themselves to the Lord to serve him and to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants. Everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath and holds fast my covenant, even them I will bring into my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer. And their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations. The Lord God who gathers the outcasts of Israel says, yet I will gather to him others besides those who are gathered to him. Even in the prophets of old, they were foretelling of an age when the worst place of prayer for everyone on the earth to gather, to come before the Lord and praise him and pray to him and thank him. It's the center, not only of the life of Israel, but this was to be the center of the whole world. This is the center of the whole world. We miss it all the time. Because we're so distracted by everything else out there, the other days of the week, we fail to realize that this place, the place of worship, not just this building, but the place where God meets with his people, is the most profoundly important place in the world. Israel had turned their back against their God, yet he still desired to bless them into the future, and he promised them. Notice that comes from Jeremiah when they're about to be taken into exile. They're about to be judged, and even in the midst of judgment, God tenderly tells them, I'm going to restore you, and the restoration that I bring will be bigger than what you had before. Kind of a pattern for how God works. Some of you I know from your own personal experience know what I'm talking about. The recovery is bigger and better than anything you ever had before. They broke the law of God without concern for consequences. They entered the temple as if everything were fine. They claimed the God of the Bible with their lips, but their hearts, the Prophet said, were far from them. The Prophet directs his reproof against hypocrites who, through confidence in the temple, allow themselves great liberty in sinning. You ever do that? They satisfied themselves with empty pretense of the temple, as if that were enough to give their attention to outward ceremonies or customary activities with other hypocrites who trust that they will escape punishment because they have entered into the temple and practiced a few things. So by means of a false covering of godliness, the hypocrites grew more bold, they grew more comfortable, so that they almost hoped to deceive God himself. That's the strangest thing in the world, and some of you are doing it now. You actually think by coming here, you can fool me. You can fool your elders. You may even fool your husband or wife and children. You can't fool God. It looks like these people are incensed. It's interesting to watch the Pharisees and Sadducees respond to Jesus. They are religiously incensed that He dares to come and tell them that He is the center of everything. And they mean it. They're self-deceived just like we get. We think that by coming here and doing certain things that we please God and we don't. It's when we come here with sincere hearts, humble ourselves before God and praise Him, that's when things change. In us and everywhere else. It is from the temple, concentrically outward, that God changes things on the earth. And it is from praise and worship, from that center, concentrically outward into our families and homes and culture. Oftentimes we have it backwards. We're all concerned about families, cultures, and politics. It is from worship that family, culture, and politics are changed, generation after generation, through worship. We're asking culturally as well, where are we culturally? Where is the church in our nation? Is the church too concerned about God-centeredness in worship? You think that's a problem? They came to the temple to make themselves feel good and to cover over their own wickedness, yet they did not humble themselves to God. They thought that the temple would be a good place to go. without making any essential changes in their lives. The temple became a little more than a place for a retreat for thieves to go and feel good about themselves. But Jesus came. Jesus once again begins to offer compassion. Notice what happens. Once he cleans out the corruption, suddenly things begin to happen. Notice it says, then the lame and the cripple and the needy. came to him, but in the droves they were being healed. The ministry suddenly of the Lord was flourishing. At once the corruption was dispelled from the temple. The lame hobbled to him, the blind cried out, and that became the focus of the things that changed the earth. Think about that. That is, at least I feel as an American, that is an odd program for change. Get the worst of the world here, the crippled and the lame and the blind and the needy and the outcasts and those that the world would consider worthless. Gather them together and stage a worldwide revolution. You've got to be kidding. And all they have to do is praise the Lord. And yet that's the center of it. It's exactly what Jesus says. It is from the mouth of babes and nursing infants that you have perfected praise to silence the enemy. The scribes and the priests approached Jesus with anger, and they began to question him. And then he answered them. It was very funny. The answer says, Have you never read? And it is a mockery. It's a term of mockery. Do you not understand what I know you have read? Very similar to his response to Nicodemus. You're a teacher of the law, and you don't know this? except with him. And Jesus is appropriately confrontational to the Pharisees and Sadducees, not to everybody. That is, if I can go back to the whole turn over the table and the money changer thing, some of us think that's a model for all of our lives. You know, anything we don't like, we're acting like Jesus in the temple. No, Jesus, when he confronted Pharisees, Sadducees, hypocrites, stubborn, blinded people, leaders of the church, that's when he responded like that. And he became angry. And he mocked them. And he said, you don't even understand the Psalms. And the Psalms were pointing you to the power and centrality of worship. Jesus refers to psalm 8 again when it says, O Lord, O Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth. You have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants you have ordained strength. The psalmist is pointing to the glory of the Lord. And the way in which the glory of the Lord is exalted on the earth and the way in which God displays his glory on the earth is through the weakness of praise. You have ordained strength. Psalm 8, verses 1. In this psalm, out of the mouth of babes and sucklings is the word. You have perfected praise. The psalmist writes about the gathered people of God who are praising the Lord. And it's an amazing truth. We don't give enough thought to. In the middle of praise to God is where God is the most stirred up on behalf of his people. This is what he wants from us ultimately, is to come into his presence and offer ourselves body and soul, everything we have, and then he will send us out by his grace to do and to live and to be the people that here in his presence he calls us to be. Martin Luther actually spoke of Psalm 8, he said it was a fortress. That's good coming from the guy we know who wrote, a mighty fortress is our God. The fortress and the power and the place where God protects his people is in the midst of praise. The fortress, Luther says, silences and restrains those who are enraged against him and inspire. They're inspired for a thirst for vengeance and cursing. The Lord has, however, perfected his praise and his power through weak and helpless people, mirrored or metaphorically spoken of here as babes and sucklings. Little people who don't really even understand what they're saying. Like us. Sometimes you've got to recognize that the things we say when we quote a Bible verse or sing a psalm, we don't know it like we ought to know it. There's a sense in which we should sing it with a longing to know it because it's written in such a way that praises and glorifies God in a way we couldn't know it probably until we get to heaven. The weak and pathetic likes of us, people who gather together to praise the Lord, become, Luther says, like a fortress. for the kingdom of God on the earth, a fortress that advances even, there again, God's fortress through praise moved forward into the earth. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1.25, because of the foolishness of God is wiser than man, and the weakness of God, he says, is stronger than man. For you see your calling, brother, that not many wise according to the flesh, Not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world and the things which are despised as God has chosen them, and the things which are not to bring to nothing the things that are. You see the reversal? It is not what you would expect If you thought about it properly, if you thought about how to define the world, you would not think of the typical postures that we see. The typical postures that I mentioned that you see in the world are clenched fists, or postures of warfare, fighting. The powerful postures of the people of God are things like kneeling and raising your hands. Those are the postures of submission and praise. Those are the postures that indicate a heart that provokes the Lord to be stirred up on behalf of his people. It's not the posture. God mocks the posture of the clenched fist. Psalm 2, he says, why do the nations rage and the peoples plod a vain thing? He even says, the rulers gather themselves together And they say, let us break our bonds. You almost can see the posture there in Psalm 2. Just tear away the bonds of God and make our own selves, our own rule of God. Verse 4 of Psalm 2 says, he who sits in heaven shall laugh at them. He who sits in heaven shall laugh and the Lord shall hold him in derision. Because those postures, even though they feel good, And it does feel good sometimes, doesn't it? To get vengeance, to seek vengeance, to plot it out, to think how you might get it. It feels powerful, but it's weak. And it doesn't accomplish anything in terms of God's long-term eternal praise. But the posture of praise, the posture of kneeling, the posture of singing, the posture of worship, that's the posture of power. And that's our posture. It should be our posture. That should be our approach to this building and to everything we do as a church. We don't have to create programs for that. Isn't that splendid? I don't, as a pastor, have to be innovative or creative. You better thank God for that. I'm pretty good at some things, but that's not what I'm good at. I can take what someone else creates and give it to you. I can do some other things, but I'm not very innovative or creative, and if God's plan counted on my innovation or my creativity or my spontaneity or my skills in that regard, we would be failing. But thanks be to God that neither this pastor or you or anything else depends on all that. It's not programs, it's praise. It's worship. The posture of power in man's eyes is mocked by God, but he responds to the posture of humility and prayer and praise and worship. By way of closing, listen to how God describes what happens. Because we too often don't, again, think about Israel sitting there in slavery. What got them out? Meetings? Community action meetings, that's what they did. They had slave, they had big quadrants of all the sections of slaves and had community action meetings on how to make better straw, or how to do this, or how to resist Pharaoh. You know, somewhere was a remnant of people that was begging God to remember them. That's what happened. That's all that happened. The whole earth shook when God opened the waters of the Red Sea, when God brought the plagues on Israel, and Israel did nothing but pray. That's it. Pray. We had an elders retreat this past weekend. I felt like it was a success just because we prayed. Some of you resist oversight from us as elders. I was jokingly thinking about this and I thought I would just share it with you. When we pray for you as elders, we can break through your resistance. You know that? That's a good thing. Remember that phrase, resistance is futile. When God's people pray, I don't care how stubborn you are. You may be able to keep me out of your home. You may be able to keep me out of a conversation. You may be able to keep your elders out. But you can't keep God out. Not if we pray for you. It's a power that we have that also reminds us of how weak we are. Because we can't force you to do anything. There's a deep irony in it. We have our most profound power over you as elders when we pray for you. That's it. It's frustrating sometimes, because I would like some of you to just listen to what I say and do it. That is an option, by the way. That's a real good option sometimes. But we have power over you that's ironic and different. Not by lording it over you, but by praying. And God breaks into your life. You can't resist it. And that's what we're doing for you, by the way. We're praying for you. We're trying to do that. That's what we should do for one another. That's the power of God through praise and prayer that is beyond the ability of the world to even understand it. Because most people would stop if you can't get into the conversation, if you can't get into the home, if you can't physically or somehow do something, then you can't do anything. That's not true. Especially not true for God's people. It's prayer and praise that stirs God to action. Listen to Psalm 18, and on this I'll close. Psalm 18. Verse 2 says, The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my strength in whom I trust, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I will call upon him, his name is worthy to be praised. So, listen, so shall I be saved from my enemies. Even the pangs of death surrounded me, and the floods of ungodliness made me afraid. The sorrows of Sheol surrounded me, the snares of death confronted me. In my distress, I called upon the Lord." Notice the sequence, because I'm convinced this is a common sequence for all of our lives. In my distress, I called upon the Lord, I cried out to God, and he heard my voice from his temple. Notice what happens. My cry came before him, even to his ears. Then he says, verse 7, then the earth shook and trembled, the foundations of the hills also quaked and were shaken, because he was angry. Smoke went up from his nostrils, devouring fire from his mouth. Coals were kindled by him. He bowed the heavens also and came down with darkness under his feet. He rode upon a cherub and flew. He flew from the wings of the wind. He made darkness his secret place. His canopy around him was dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. From the brightness before him, his clouds passed with hailstones and coals of fire, for the Lord thundered from heaven. uttered his voice, hailstones and coals of fire were sent out. Arrows came from the Lord and scattered the foe, lightning in abundance, and he vanquished them. Then the channels of the sea were seen, the foundations of the world were uncovered at the rebuke of the Lord, at the blast of the breath of your nostrils." He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters, he delivered me from my strong enemy and from those who hated me. For they were too strong, he says, for me. They confronted me in the day of calamity, but the Lord was my support. He brought me out onto a broad place, he delivered me, because he delighted in me." Let's pray. Heavenly Father, as we begin to use this sanctuary, this building, help us to understand its power And His power doesn't depend on its beauty, even how it functions, but its power depends, O Lord, on people of God praying and praising and singing. Help us to understand, O Lord, that we are at our strongest when we praise You. When our knees are bent and our hands are raised in supplication and praise and prayer, O Lord, we are at our best. And so, Heavenly Father, help us to do that. Help us to move forward in this building and in everything that this church does, centering ourselves on the power of prayer and praise to change the world, to change us. We need you, Lord. We need your grace. We need your power. Even now as we're about to take the Lord's Supper, we're reminded of our ultimate need. We need to live on the food of Jesus Christ himself and on the hope that he brings through bread and wine, through the body and blood of Jesus himself. This we pray in his name. Amen.