would take your Bibles and turn to Matthew chapter 21. We began Matthew 21 on Palm Sunday, and we looked at the first part of Christ's triumphal entry, where Christ as King entered Jerusalem this morning. We are looking at what happens immediately after that. where Jesus acts as priest. Next week we will consider his triumphal entry and his coming as the prophet. We're going to look at this morning verses 12 through 14. And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sought and sold and bought in the temple. And he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. And he said to them, it is written, my house shall be called a house of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers. And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple and he healed them. Let's pray again. Heavenly Father, we do thank you for your word. We thank you for this revelation of who you are and what you do. We thank you that you do, in fact, that you did enter into the temple and cleanse it of unrighteousness. And we pray that you would do the same to us this morning. And we pray this in Jesus' name, amen. There was a man from the backwoods of Tennessee, and one day he found himself in this large city. It was his first time there. And he found himself outside of this building, and he looked and he saw this elderly lady walk into this room, and when she walked in, the two doors slid shut behind her. And he watched for a moment, and a couple of minutes later, those doors opened up again. Only it wasn't this elderly lady that walked out, it was a young, attractive woman. So this father called to his son, Billy Bob, go get mother. People suggest all sorts of things for change. One of the popular worldly methods of change right now is to believe in the power of positive thinking. Other people will appeal to maintaining a good energy around you. And of course, what's underlying these approaches is this concept that I can determine for myself that I'm gonna have a good life. Often, Christians even get caught up in this type of thinking. Many, perhaps even most of America's churches have been caught up in trying to Christianize these worldly methods of change. But underneath and behind these wrong pursuits is a wrong understanding of how change happens. You know, we often want to see our lives change. We want to see those bad things or those things in our life that we deem to be bad, we want to see them changed into what we deem to be good. And of course, in this materialistic culture, that often means money or wealth or freedom from materialistic problems. But what God is doing in His people, God is changing His people. He is transforming them into what He has determined is good. And of course, as you all know, that probably and sometimes doesn't line up with what we ourselves think as good. If you would turn over your Bibles now to John chapter 4. I want to illustrate this change to you. John chapter 4 is a story most of you probably know and have read before. It is the story of Jesus Christ meeting with this woman at the well. The disciples had gone into town to buy food, and so Jesus is there at the well by himself, and he goes to this woman who has come out late in the morning to draw water. And this surprised this woman that Jesus would speak to her, for Jewish men didn't speak to Samaritan woman. And so there's this conversation that happens. There's a discussion that happens. And in the midst of this discussion, Jesus exposes her sinful life. And he points out that not only has she been divorced and married numerous times, but she is living with a man to whom she's not married. Now, Jesus doesn't do this to be spiteful or hurtful. In fact, it seems like he's just simply pointing this out as a statement of fact of where she is in her life at that moment. And so she responds to Jesus. She says, I see that you are a prophet. And so recognizing Jesus has this authority from God, she proceeds to ask Him a question. She proceeds to ask Him, where is the right place to worship? Now this question has been the dividing line between the Samaritans and the Jews for hundreds of years, perhaps even longer than that. Is it the Jerusalem Mount or is it Mount Gerizim? And so in answering her question, then, about the right place to worship, Jesus says these words. He says, it's neither on these two mountains, but John 4, verses 23 and 24. He says to her, 21, thank you, for the Father raises the dead. That's chapter 5, that's why I didn't see it. Chapter 4, 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 in truth. Jesus is telling her of a change that is happening. It's not a change of substance. God has always been and can only be worshipped in spirit and in truth. We see this echoed in Hebrews 11, verse 6, without faith it is impossible to please God. So the change that Jesus is referring to is not a change of substance, but a change of form. All the temple rituals, all the temple ceremonies, those things are coming to an end. Those things are going to be abolished, right? So Jesus is speaking of this change in the form, but it's interesting because right after this external change, something else happens to her. Jesus reveals himself to this woman there as the Messiah. the one who was promised by God to lead people in right worship. And as a result, this woman is changed. Now, this woman, some people argue, was a woman of the night. She was a immoral lady, according to their standards, and probably by our standards today as well. And she came to this place to draw water because she was not welcome among society. She was shunned, she was an outcast. So she sought to avoid the other ladies. But it's interesting, now after meeting with Christ, after meeting with Jesus, she goes back into the town and she calls the town people, come meet Jesus. But she does it in a perhaps unusual way. She does it in a way that demonstrates she has been changed from the inside out. She doesn't merely say, come meet Jesus. She says, come meet the man who told me all that I ever did. And then some of the people there in verse 39, we read this, many Samaritans from the town believed in him because of the woman's testimony. She had been changed. And then if you skip down a couple more verses, it is even more intriguing what has happened and the change that is coming over this town. Verse 42, they said to the woman, it is no longer because of what you have said that we believed, for we have heard for ourselves and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world. I love that expression there, we know. It's not an exclamation of emotion that's happening. This is a statement of doctrine. This is a statement of truth. It is a statement that they have been radically changed from what they were. into something new. And so in making such a statement, they are really submitting to what Jesus said at first to this woman. They're back in verse 22. Jesus said, They are now saying, We now know. Who to worship and how to worship. Jesus, You changed us. That's what happens. That's what Christ as priest does when He reveals Himself to people. He enables His people to rightly worship Him. He changes them from merely going through the motions He changes their heart so they can worship in spirit and in truth. And this is what we see happening in a broader scale over in Matthew chapter 21. We see Jesus exercising His power as priest in three ways to enable right worship. There in verse 12, the first thing Jesus does is He cleanses the temple. We see He drove out all who sold and bought in the temple and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seat of those who sold pigeons. Let me tell you, this wasn't the first time Jesus had done this. If you were to turn over to John chapter 2, you would see Jesus going into the temple the first time and clearing out the temple. And there He makes a whip, and we see Him throwing the tables over. There's a warning here to us. Here is Christ the first time He enters Jerusalem, clearing the temple. Here He is the third time He enters Jerusalem, clearing the temple. The warning to us is this. We need to constantly be on guard against sin. Proverbs 4.23, keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. Evil will always seek to recapture the ground it loses. Think of the man who was possessed by a demon, and had that demon expelled from him, and that demon went out, found seven other demons, and came back with him. And finding the house cleaned but empty, they took up residence once again. That is what evil does. Evil is always lurking in the shadows. It is always looking for the opportunity to rear its ugly head. And when it does, it will contaminate worship. Evil will distort worship. And so we need Jesus to cleanse us. Not merely the initial time, but we need Jesus to continually be at work cleansing us. We need His Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, to be constantly employed as the custodian of our souls. Because if He isn't always cleansing us and cleaning us and exposing our sin and rooting it out, then that sin will seek to take hold and it will, in fact, distort our worship. I want you to notice something else about why Jesus drove them out. And I like the way Matthew Henry says this. He says, the abuse was buying and selling and changing money in the temple. Note, he says, lawful things ill-timed and ill-placed may become sinful things. There are all sorts of illustrations that I could give to you for this. Think of the intimacy of a husband and wife. Such relationships, perfectly acceptable and right and pleasing to God within marriage, but outside those boundaries, it is sinful. You know, there were requirements that must be met for right worship to happen there in the temple. People traveling great distances often expected to find the resources they would need in order to engage rightly in worship there at the temple. They expected the temple to have those resources on hand. And so people would come bringing their money in order to buy the materials they needed or in order to exchange their foreign currency for the current temple currency. Those were good things. Those were things that were necessary for right worship. There was a legitimate need for money changers. There was a legitimate need for people to be able to purchase the very sacrifices that were required of them. But it wasn't in the externals of these things. It was where they set up shop. They set up shop in the temple. I said earlier, the foundation for worship from John chapter 4, the foundation has been and always will be the same. True worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth, regardless of the form, whether it was Old Testament forms or as it is in New Testament forms. Those two foundational aspects must be there. And these merchants, these money changers, by their very presence in the temple, was distorting these two foundational aspects. We can easily see how truth gets distorted, right? They're told you have to present sacrifices. And here are these merchants, these money changers, these thieves, lying into the very temple ground. So immediately, truth gets set on the back burner. which is why Jesus, of course, called them the den of thieves. But these men are also distorting the very spirit of the worship that is supposed to take place there. And the very act of buying and selling certified sacrifices, the emphasis is being distorted. Obeying the external forms was supposed to be an act of faith in the Old Testament. They had the rituals, they had the things they were supposed to do, and in so doing, those were to be demonstrations of their faith. But with these money changers, these people offering certified sacrifices, what they were then conveying was all that mattered was going through the external rituals. Whatever spirit you brought with you into the temple, that didn't matter. Just buy the right thing, buy the right pigeon, and your sacrifice is okay. The spiritual aspect of worship was erased. I tell you, the same thing happens today. It wasn't a phenomenon limited to the Jerusalem temple 2,000 years ago. People still think that if they merely follow through the external forms of worship, Well, they will have done their duty to God. But that's not true. See, a lot of people will come to church on Sunday mornings merely out of the duty. They feel, I've got to put in my time on Sunday morning. If I do that, God will be pleased. And then they leave and they go back to their godless life the rest of the week. That isn't worship that is holy and pleasing to God. Merely attending a worship service does not constitute you fulfilling your responsibility to worship God on His Lord's Day. Now, one of the ways you can test yourself to see if you're merely going through the motions on Sunday morning or if in fact you are seeking to worship God in spirit and in truth, one of the ways you can test yourself is to evaluate how do you prepare for worship on Sunday mornings. If the Lord's Day is, in fact, the greatest day of the week, if it is to be the highlight of our spiritual life, then you would think you'd prepare for it, and prepare for it during the other days. I normally publish in the bulletin what I'm going to be preaching on for the following week. If you want to prepare rightly for worship next week, one of the things you ought to do is look at that passage I'll be preaching on. Read it. Study it. Prepare yourself for God's Word. Another way you can prepare yourself for worship is through your daily worship or through your family worship. So let me summarize this first point. A defiled temple means defiled worship. A defiled temple means defiled worship. Nehemiah chapter 13 is an example of this. Nehemiah had left Jerusalem, we don't know how long, but he had left to go back to his official duties with the government. But then he comes back. And he comes back and he discovers the city of Jerusalem is in disarray. Everything sacred has been corrupted. And so he begins by clearing out the temple. And then he moves to the Sabbath day, and he cleanses the Sabbath day. And then he moves on to the people who had intermarried, and he cleanses the family. And then he moves to the priesthood and he cleanses it. And in Nehemiah 13.30, he says this, thus I have cleansed them from everything foreign. And I read about that and I said, why did Nehemiah begin his cleansing of Jerusalem and of God's people? Why did he begin with the temple? Why there? Why not with the priesthood? Why not with the family? Why did he begin at the temple? It's for this truth, a defiled temple will defile everything else because a defiled temple defiles worship. See, if you're not worshiping rightly, then you're not living rightly. There is an intimate connection between the way you worship and the way you live your life. And so Nehemiah begins cleansing by cleansing worship. Paul writes to the Christian in 1 Corinthians 3.16, Do you not know that you are God's temple, and that God's Spirit dwells in you? And again, 1 Corinthians 6.19-20, Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price, so glorify God in your body. There is an intimate connection between the way we worship and the way we live life. A defiled temple means a defiled worship. And Jesus alone has the power to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And if His Spirit is not at work within you, if His Spirit is not at work cleansing you, shaping you, transforming you, you will not be able to worship God rightly. Number two in your bulletins, Jesus has the power to define worship. After cleansing the temple, after kicking all those people out, Jesus instructs and defines what worship is about. Verse 13 says, it is written, my house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves. Now, this quote comes, this house of prayer, it comes from Isaiah chapter 56, verse seven. But in order to understand verse 7, you have to pick up the context from verse 6. So Isaiah 56 verse 6 says, And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it and holds fast my covenant, these I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples." You know where these money changers set up camp? They were in the temple, but specifically they were in the court of the Gentiles. Now there were certain layers in the temple. You had the Holy of Holies, that innermost room where the Shekinah glory dwelt. The only person that could go in there was the high priest, and then he could only go in once a year, and then only if he had rightly fulfilled all the other requirements. So very limited. Basically, no one could enter that Holy of Holies. Then you have the holy place right outside that where the priests would go in in order to take care of a few of their responsibilities. And then you have the the courtroom of the priests, where most of the sacrificing took place. And beyond that, then, you had the court of the men. And beyond that, you had the court of the women. And then finally, you had the court of the Gentiles. And that's where the money changers were working. Now, in the Jewish mindset, you can almost understand their argument. Well, we're not taken away from the people of God. We're not costing the Jewish people anything by setting up here. In fact, we're serving the Jewish people because we're giving them the services they need. Yet, here Jesus comes into this court of the Gentiles to defend those who had no voice there in the temple setting. Let me tell you, it's of utmost importance that you recognize these two things about what Jesus does. Number one, worship really did take place there. Worship really did take place in that court of the Gentiles. See, even the Gentiles could be brought in to the temple and enabled to worship rightly. There was room in that temple for every kind of person in the world to enter in and to rightly worship. And in fact, there is no better place for anyone to be than this temple. Psalm 84.10, better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere. That was true for the Gentile as much as it was true for the high priest and as much as it is still true for us today. The second thing you need to recognize is that Jesus summarizes their worship, even in the outer courts, even among the Gentiles, He summarizes it as prayer. The Isaiah 56 passage again says they're going to be offering burnt offerings and they're going to be offering sacrifices on the altar. That's important to point out because the Gentiles were keeping the same form in worship as the Jews. but they were also to keep the same substance, to worship in spirit and in truth. The Gentiles' worship was not to be any different. He was still to worship in spirit and in truth. He was still to be in communion with God. You know, there is a reason why we have five, sometimes six prayers in our worship service. Prayers are our direct address to God. That's where we express ourselves to the Lord. And so every element of our worship service, almost every element in our worship service, begins with prayer. So critical is prayer to worship that if you come into worship without an attitude of prayer, without this attitude of communing with the Lord, well, you are not rightly worshiping. And so Isaiah 56 also is a divine promise, right? The foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister, to serve Him, to love the Lord, he says, these I will bring into my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of the Lord. What happens when those who are outside are brought into God's presence to rightly worship Him? they find joy. Joy is not the same as happiness. Happiness is an emotion. Joy is something spiritual. It is different. When we come in an attitude of prayer, where prayer summarizes our worship, we discover great joy. It doesn't matter what else is going on in our life. Some of you have some great problems, great difficulties, situations. But when you enter into the presence of the Lord in humility and in prayer, in the heart of prayer, the Lord promises that the fruit of joy will grow and will dwell and blossom within you. Isaiah 58, 13 and 14. promises our attitude, this to us, regarding the Lord's Day. If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and if you call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable, if you honor it not going your own ways or seeking your own pleasures or talking idly, Then you shall take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth. I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken." Let me tell you, there is no one for whom that is not true. Not back then, not now. Even though the external forms have changed, even though we no longer offer burnt offerings, and instead we offer sacrifices of praise Though the external forms have changed, the substance remains the same, the substance of worshiping in spirit and in truth, summarized as an attitude of prayer, and the promise there will be joy to those who rightly worship. Finally this morning, we've got one last point to consider. Jesus has the power to cleanse. Jesus has the power to define. Number three, Jesus has the power to bestow. More specifically, Jesus has the power to bestow grace. Jesus has cleared away the temple. He has defined worship, summarized worship, as prayer there in the temple. And then verse 14, the blind and the lame, they come to Jesus, notice where, in the temple. Now, I don't want you to hear me wrongly. I'm not saying that Jesus is going to heal everyone that comes to worship in the temple. That's not the point that is being driven home here. That's never even promised that God is going to heal everyone. But what is promised is grace for the broken soul. Psalm 51 was written after David's great fall into sin. After he had an affair, after he committed murder, his soul is broken. And he cries out to the Lord in Psalm 51. He cries out that the Lord might restore to him the joy of his salvation. And then in verses 15 to 17, David prays, Now I want you to know who is saying this. This is David. In David's house, the lame and the blind were not permitted. If you were lame and blind, you couldn't go to David's house. You were excluded for that. It was the honor of kings back then to only have the best of humanity around. If you were maimed, deformed in any way, it was a shame to the king to be there. And so generally, those lame, blind, you weren't permitted. And yet, notice, that's not the case with God. God's glory and His honor do not depend upon the good standing or on the performance, on the appearance of man. Rather, God manifests His glory in His majesty, in the lame, in the blind, in the broken that come into His presence. Psalm 147 verse 3, He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. Isaiah 57 verse 15, For thus says the one who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell in a high and holy place. And also with Him who is of contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, to revive the heart of the contrite. Worship. happens when those in need of grace, who are broken, come to Christ seeking grace. Does your soul need healing? Remember what Jesus did for the woman at the well. He changed her by His power and He enabled her to rightly worship. He had the power to cleanse her. He had the power to forgive her. No longer did sin have power over her. No longer was she overwhelmed by shame or by guilt. But by the power of Christ, He transformed her, freed her from the power of sin so that she could rightly worship. And He had the power to define to her what is good and acceptable worship. which is worshipping in spirit and in truth. Remember, she previously, she worshipped in a lie. She worshipped in deceit. She worshipped what she did not know, but Jesus met her where she was and enabled her to worship in spirit and in truth. He changed her. And he changed her by bestowing upon her the very grace she needed. She was a broken vessel, a broken woman. rejected, scorned by society, living in sin, had no right to enter into the presence of God, and yet Christ came to her, met her where she was, and she was changed. Let me ask you, is Jesus changing you? Survey where you are spiritually now. Compare to where you were a year ago. Are you being changed? I'm not merely talking about that one-time deal. So much of American Christianity puts so much emphasis on the single conversion experience. But what is the Lord doing in your life now? How has He been changing you over time? Are your thoughts, words, and actions more Christ-like now than they were a year ago? We come back, how are you worshiping? Are you worshiping in spirit and in truth? Is your attitude full of prayer and love and humility as you come? Is Christ precious to you? Is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world your heart's desire? If so, then that will be reflected in your worship. And in such worship, He will change you by His grace. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your grace this morning. We thank You of the many wonderful blessings that You have given to us. We thank You especially for Your sacraments, for these signs and seals of Your wonderful covenant of grace. And we pray now Your blessing upon this sacrament. In Jesus' name, amen.