Pastor Joey Sampaga: The Sovereign Authority of the Son, Luke 19:45 – 20:8

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Well, good morning everyone. Welcome to East Valley International Church. I’m so glad that you all are here. Just a quick reminder that we do have our Sunday School and we’ve been, this is our second lesson on Revelation. And I want to encourage you all just to try and make it an hour earlier. It’s something that we’re living in end times right now. And what the end times, or what Revelation is teaching us is what’s going to happen when the Antichrist comes and when the Tribulation comes. So that we are aware and so that we can be, we can have that urgency to share the Gospel with those who are still unbelievers. Okay, because there’s not a lot of good, very horrible things are going to happen. Okay, so please, please try and make it. It’ll be worth it, I promise. If not, then you can take it up with God. Okay, deal? Deal.

Alright, so last week we looked at the parable of the ten minas in Luke chapter 19 verses 11 to 27. And the crowds, they were following Jesus, they were anticipating a political revolution. They thought that this Messiah who would come was going to be the general type Messiah who’s going to take over Rome and conquer them. So that the Jews can then be free from persecution of the Roman government. They supposed that the Kingdom of God was going to appear immediately, right? When he went into Jerusalem, they thought that Jesus was going to do what he needed to do, what they expected him to do. But Jesus, he corrected their false timeline by telling them that he, in the parable, was the nobleman, must go to a distant country. In this case, it’s heaven. Leaving his servants to faithfully engage in his business.

If you recall, he gave ten servants one mina each. And a mina was worth three months of salary. And then he says, go out and do something with it. The first servant took the mina, he made ten minas. Well, he didn’t make ten minas, but he came back to Jesus, or to the nobleman, and gave him ten minas from the one mina that was given to him. The second one came back with five minas. And then the third one came back with just the one mina that he was originally given. Because he wrapped it up in a handkerchief and put it on the top shelf. And he left it there until the nobleman, or Jesus, came back and took it down. He says, here you go. I knew that you were a severe man, and I wanted to keep it safe. But really, he was just saying that because he was too lazy to go out and do anything with it.

Jesus said, well, you could have at least stuck it in the bank so that when I collected it, there would be interest. But in this case, it was just the one when he came back, or one that he gave, and he basically did nothing with it. And Jesus, the nobleman, got upset and basically took the servant and punished him. Right in front of him, basically killed him. And that’s just a parable for us to understand that those who hear the gospel but do nothing with it, don’t respond to it, well, they’re going to suffer a torment in hell for eternity. So that’s what that parable is teaching. So immediately following that parable, now we’re not going to talk about this, I’m not going to preach on this because it’s already been preached on by Brother Leslie, if you recall that, about the triumphal entry of Jesus. Although we also sang about it as well, which is good.

So in verses 28 through 44, Jesus orchestrates his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. He rides down the Mount of Olives on a baby donkey, or a fowl, in direct fulfillment of Zechariah 9. And the crowds cry out, Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna. But as Jesus pressed the hill and looks over the magnificent city of Jerusalem, as he’s on the hill looking, he doesn’t smile at what was going on. He weeps instead. He weeps because the nation is spiritually blind, they don’t recognize him as the Messiah, they don’t call him the Messiah, at least the Messiah that he came as. He came as a servant. He came here to save. They didn’t recognize the time for their visitation, and he prophesies that because of their rejection, the city will be leveled by the Romans. And eventually it did take place. Does anyone remember when the Romans came and destroyed Jerusalem? 87. 87, exactly. And that’s in the history books. It was prophesied by Jesus himself.

And so with tears still fresh on his face, Jesus now rides directly into the heart of the nation’s religion. He goes into the Temple. And what follows is a devastating collision between the pure, sovereign authority of the Son of God and the corrupted, self-serving religious establishment of Israel. Now to really understand this, we need to understand the Temple complex in Jerusalem and what it had become. The Temple was massive, surrounded by a massive outer court called the Court of the Gentiles. So imagine like, I think the only thing I can think of here in Gilbert is like the, what do you call those, the ones at LDS? Those temples? Are they temples? Yeah. Mormon Temple. Those huge, beautiful looking architectures. Think of that. And then on the outside of it was the, like there was another courtyard. And that’s where the Gentiles would worship, hoping to learn about the one true living God.

But the religious elite led by the high priest Annas and his family had turned this sacred space into a Mafia-style extortion, an extortion ring known historically as the Bazaars of Annas. So if you want to look that up, you can do more studying on that. And that’s something I would encourage you to as well. Whatever we preach on here from this pulpit, you go in afterward and you do your own research. You do your own study on it. You can confirm what I say or say Pastor Joey, what he said here doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t make sense compared to what I did research on. We can look at it together. Okay? Now every Jewish male was required to pay a temple tax. But the priests, they declared that Roman coins were unclean. So if you brought a Roman money or currency into the temple, they’re not going to accept that. The only thing that was accepted in the temple is called the tyrant half-shekel. The tyrant half-shekel.

So the priests, they set up money changers to exchange the Roman currency into this tyrant half-shekel. And so you have these throughout the court of the Gentiles, these people, these money changers, they charge an exorbitant exchange rate. Sometimes up to 50% markup. Think about this for a second. What is, how many pesos is it to a dollar in the Philippines? Fifty? Sixty pesos. Okay, well I can’t do the math on that. Let’s just say it’s 50. Fifty pesos to a dollar. It would now be 75 pesos to a dollar. Right? Sixty, whatever it may be, it’s now probably 80. It’s a lot. Yes, yes. So that’s what they were doing. They were extorting the people who were going in and getting their monies changed. Right? So furthermore, pilgrims traveling from long distances would buy a lamp of sacrifice when they arrived. Or whatever animal that they’re buying. But the priests had a monopoly on the approved, the approved animals.

And if you brought your own lamp, their inspectors would inevitably, inevitably be, they would find microscopic blemishes on the animal to disqualify it. Right? They would see this perfectly white lamp and they see a little black fur on it. They would say, sorry, there’s a little piece of black hair in there. Of fur. Forcing them to buy one that was already there that was approved. That was definitely overpriced. Right? Anyone ever been to a ball game before? You know, the Diamondbacks or the Suns or wherever it may be, the Parkland. Right? You can buy a bottle of water for maybe a dollar in the store. But if you buy it over there, it’s $8. Very expensive. And beer, not that I know of. You’re probably spending about $15 for a can. It’s crazy. And a hot dog? Yeah. You can’t bring, I think they changed it a little bit to where you can bring a bottle of water. It’s still sealed. Yeah. And it has to be in a clear bag. Right? So, if you go there, you go to a ball game, make sure you eat before you go. It will save you some money.

So, these people, they were fleecing the flock of God. They had taken the place intended for the nations to worship and turned it into a noisy, foul-smelling, corrupt marketplace that lined their own pockets. They were doing it for their own selves, for their own purposes, to make money. And into this religious corruption, it steps the Lord. Basically, it corrupts the temple of God. And when Jesus walked in there, that’s the first thing he saw. And that’s where we pick up. So, we’re going to be in Luke chapter 19, verses 45. And we’re going to read all the way to chapter 20, verse 8. Luke 19, verse 45 is where we’ll start. It says, And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them, It is written, My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers. And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him. But they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words.

One day, he was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel. The chief priests and scribes with the elders came up and said to him, Tell us by what authority you do these things, or who is it that gave you this authority? He answered them, I also will ask you a question. Now tell me, was the baptism of John from heaven or from a man? And they discussed it with one another, saying, If we say from heaven, he will say, Why did you not believe him? But if we say from man, all the people will stone us to death, for they are convinced that John was the father. So they answered that they did not know where it came from. And Jesus said to them, Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, your word is truth. And as we look at the supreme authority of Jesus Christ today, strip away any religious hypocrisy in our own hearts. Lord, prevent us from trying to manage you or use you for our own gain. Grant us the grace to submit totally to the Lordship of Christ, knowing that His authority is our only hope of salvation. Lord, open our eyes to see the beauty of your solemn grace today, reveal to us what you want us to learn. And Father, hide me behind your cross, allowing your word to speak for me and not my own. Father, we thank you, we love you, and we praise you in Jesus’ name. Amen.

So Jesus, He walks into the court of Gentiles, right before He gets into the temple. He doesn’t hold a committee meeting. He takes action right away. He walks in, and He already knows what He’s going to do. Malachi 3.1 prophesied this. It says, And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to this temple, but who can endure the day of His coming? So here is the fulfillment. Jesus, He begins physically driving out the merchants. In Matthew and Mark, it talks about how He was flipping over tables, and He was cracking the whip. As He drives them out, He quotes two Old Testament prophets. First, He quotes Isaiah 56.7, where it says, My house shall be a house of prayer. That was a divine invention or intention. A place of communion with God for all nations. But then He quotes Jeremiah 7.11, where it says, But you have made it a den of robbers. Now think of what a den of robbers is. What a den is. A den is not where the robber commits his crime. A den is a safe house where the robber hides after he commits the crime to escape justice. So they are hiding behind their religion, their religiosity.

So Jesus is indicting the religious leaders here. He says, You are committing extortion and sin out in the world. So He is basically saying, You are sinning out in front of everyone. And you are trying to hide here in the temple. You are using that as cover. And then you come into My Father’s house, perform your religious rituals, and treat His temple as a safe house to hide from the judgment of God. And believe me when I say this, there are many, many false teachers and false churches that do that. They preach the gospel of Jesus Christ very dramatically, and sometimes right on point. But then their lives themselves, the way they live their lives, is unholy, very un-glorifying to God. But they only come just to receive the praise from the people, saying, Oh, your sermon was so good. I’ve learned so much. And they receive that, and they’re like, Oh yeah, that’s the praise that I want. Jesus, He shatters their false security. True religion is not a cover for unrepentant sin. And a lot of churches out there, a lot of people, a lot of leaders have unrepentant sin, and they continue to put on that mask of being holy. And I don’t want our church to be like that. I want us to be repentant, to have repentance as a daily thing in our lives.

Repentance is not just a one-time thing. Repentance is a daily thing for a Christian, meaning we turn to God, and we turn away from the world. That’s all part of our sanctification process, that the Holy Spirit walks us through, and He starts to change us to be more like His Son, Jesus. Now after cleansing the temple, Jesus doesn’t leave. He takes over. In verse 47, it says that He was teaching daily in the temple. So after He cleaned out the money changers and the corruption, He started to teach there. Verse 47 says He’s teaching daily in the temple. He occupies the very territory that He just purged and cleaned. Now notice the two contrasting reactions. The religious establishment, the chief priest, the scribes, and the principal men, they’re enraged. They’re so upset with what just happened. Why? Because they’re losing money. Right? They have to take out all their animals and the money changers. They’re losing prestige, and they’re losing control over what they set up, their organized crime on the outer courts. And Luke says that they were seeking to destroy Him, to destroy Jesus, because of what He did, but they are paralyzed. Why? Because of the sovereign protection of God mediated through the crowds. Right? Verse 48 says they couldn’t do anything because all the people were hanging on His words.

And so this is what I also ask all of you. When you show up to God’s house, which is the church, well, at least this church, right? Because it’s a gospel preaching church. When you show up to His house, hang on to every word that’s being preached. Right? Again, and I know I said this last week and the week before, don’t let your mind wander. Just grasp on to God’s holy words that are being preached about His word. Focus on it. Don’t let distractions come over you. So the common people who have been burdened by the legalism and the extortion of the priesthood, they’re starving for truth. And while we’re living out there in the world, we’re living out in the culture, we’re living out in, you know, things that are wrong that they say is right now, and the way the lifestyle of the world is today, well, we ought to be starving for the truth of God’s word. And so when we enter God’s home, His house, we ought to be grasping on to every word that’s being taught, whether in a Bible study or during a sermon. Right? You’re hanging on the very breath of Jesus Himself. And it would have been such a blessing to physically be there to hear Jesus preaching. But in the meantime, we still have God’s word that’s been revealed to us, and it’s being taught to us by the Holy Spirit. And we have to hang on to those words.

Finally, the Sanhedrin groups, chapter 20, begins with the ultimate showdown. The chief priests who control the temple, the scribes, the theologians, and the elders, the wealthy elite, march up to Jesus, and they demand, and tell us by what authority you do these things, or who it is that gave you this authority. Where did you get this authority from? How are you teaching all of these things? Who said you could be teaching this, is what they’re asking. And the Greek word for authority is exosia. Exosia, it means the absolute right and power to act. And God has given Jesus, the Son, the authority to teach and preach what He’s preaching. And these religious leaders are asking for His credentials. Who signed your ordination papers? What seminary did you go to? Did you even graduate from rabbinic school? You’re not even a Levite. Who gave you the right to disrupt our temple and teach our people? They aren’t asking because they want to know the truth. They’re asking to track Him, as they always try to do. And if Jesus says, I have no authority, well, they can arrest Him as a madman. If He says, my authority comes directly from God, they can arrest Him for blasphemy.

But Jesus, who’s omniscient, knows everything, possessing infinite wisdom, sees right through their trap, as He always does. Under rabbinic debate rules, it was perfectly acceptable to answer a question with a counter question, and elect a lawyer. So Jesus puts them on the spot. He asks them in verse 4, was the baptism of John from heaven or from man? What a great question. This is a brilliant question from Jesus. John the Baptist had clearly pointed to Jesus, calling Him the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And by asking about John, Jesus is intricately linking His own authority to John’s ministry. Now look at their private conversation, religious leaders, in verse 5 and 6. They don’t open their Bibles, they don’t pray for wisdom. They’re there trying to calculate things, right? They’re calculating their political fallout. They have to answer it properly, otherwise something’s going to happen. It says, if we say John was from heaven, Jesus will say, then why didn’t you believe Him when He pointed to me? But if we say John was just a man, the crowds will literally stone us to death because they love John, they know John is a prophet. So they were talking this through. Their religion is entirely pragmatic here. They don’t care what’s true, they only care what’s safe. Like all politicians, right? Well, at least the majority. They love the praise of men more than the glory of God. They didn’t ask God, God, give us your wisdom to answer this. But rather, they came together and used human wisdom, or their own wisdom.

So, they give the most cowardly answer possible in verse 7. We don’t know. We don’t know. That was their answer. And these are the theological masters of Israel, supposedly. You’re supposed to know all of religion. The men tasked with discerning true prophets from false prophets, and they publicly plead ignorance. Does that sound familiar in today’s political environment? On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my right to the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution, which is basically what they say. In today’s language. That’s today’s language. Now, because they refuse to answer honestly, Jesus issues a terrifying judgment in verse 8. Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. If you’re not going to tell me, then why should I tell you? So, this is not Jesus being stubborn. This is divine judicial hardening. And when men repeatedly suppress the truth, close their eyes to the light, and refuse to submit to what God has already plainly revealed, God eventually stops speaking to them. And that’s how it is in the world today. God has revealed who He is, who His Son is, who the Holy Spirit is, what the Gospel is, how to be saved. What does one need to do in order to be saved? And if you have a Bible, if you’re holding your Bible, that’s the revelation of Jesus Christ. That’s the revelation of God’s Word to us. And when people ignore that, when people push it, when people say, oh, that was just written by man, which is true. God used man as a vehicle to write the Bible. The Bible is God’s Word. It came from God Himself. It was inspired by God Himself. Everything in the Bible is true.

Now the latest thing that people are starting to push is that, oh yeah, the Bible’s true, except for the writings of Paul. He wasn’t really one of the true apostles. So I believe in all the way up to, well, just remove all the epistles of Paul. Why do you think they’re pushing that, though? Because Paul is talking about homosexuality. He’s talking about men are to be leaders of the church. No women pastors. I know that’s a hard one to hear, but that’s just how God formed it, and that’s how He’s given us roles. There are many things, but look at what the churches are doing today, those false churches. They have gay preachers, lesbian preachers, non-binary preachers. And they’re taking God’s Word and they’re twisting it, or they’re removing it. They’re crossing out the ones where it talks about homosexuality and sleeping with a same-sex marriage as something that’s offensive to God. That’s an abomination to God. They cross all that out. They don’t like to hear the patriarchy. They don’t like to hear that the man is the head of the household and that the wives are to submit. I mean, I know submit sounds like a really yucky word, but it’s to have reverence. But if you continue on and you read it, it also says that the man is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. And when Christ loved the church, what did Christ do for the church, which is us, Christians? What did He do? He died for them. He died for us. And so as men of the household, we are to die and protect our families.

Now here’s the thing, just because, I mean, it may sound good that the man is, at least for men, it may sound good that you’re the head of the household. But guess what? God is going to hold you accountable for your family’s doings. When Eve ate the fruit, who did God go to? God went to Adam. Adam, why did you allow this to happen? Why did you eat the fruit? And this is where the blame game started. What did Adam say? Oh, it was the woman that you gave me. And he said, well, it was the serpent that you created. That’s where the blame game comes from. But you see, God loves us all equally. Equally. He’s just given us certain roles. I mean, if it were possible, I would be like, oh, no, Heather, go ahead and lead the family. I’m going to ask you, what should we do next? Where should we go? What do you want to eat? What restaurant do you want to go to? I would love to do that because then I wouldn’t have to worry about, if I’m wrong, then, you know, I could blame her. But God has given us that authority. He has given us a certain role. And so we, as the men, have to make sure we’re watching out for our families. We provide for them. We’re the spiritual leaders of the family. And if you’re a Christian and it’s opposite where your wife is leading, well, what God does is He changes it. Because I can tell you from my own witness, my own Christian faith, that when Heather and I were first dating and even getting married, I allowed her to be the leader because I just didn’t want to deal with it. I said, no, no, whatever you want to do. Right? She was wearing the pants, is what I’m saying.

And what happens, though, as you start to mature in your faith, here’s me, here’s Heather, this is what happened. It was a slow process, but it happened. And for her to give up her authority and to submit to me was hard for her. You know, we always say women like that have a strong will to be nice. And she’s still strong-willed. However, she now understands what it means. And I also understand what it means for me. And if it does happen to where, you know, you marry and you’re unequally yoked, I mean, that happens. If the man is here and the woman’s here. The woman is to also train up the man, the husband, and also he should be learning from the pastors or other men who are more mature. And what happens, it goes like this, and then he starts to learn more, he’s now equally yoked with his wife. And then what happens is the pastor and those who are discipling him start to teach him even more, to now he takes the lead. Right, in my first church where I was saved, we actually had a woman pastor, not pastor, a woman teacher teaching Bible study. Because there was no man who would step up. And then what happened was when we were raised up, then she stepped down and allowed the man, the men, to lead. And that’s how to properly do it. Because in most churches, maybe even in the Philippines or whatever country it is, usually the women are the ones coming to church. And then the men kind of just go just to appease their wives. And then eventually, if they’re saved, then they start to, God starts to mold them into their role. Does that make sense? That’s how we got to look at it. Wow, I went way off topic.

So, going back to our passage. Again, Jesus wasn’t being stubborn here. This is a divine judicial hardening. And when men repeatedly suppress the truth, close their eyes to the light, and refuse to submit to what God has already plainly revealed, God eventually stops speaking to him. Jesus will not cast pearls before swine. He owes them no further explanation, because He already knows that their hearts are hardened. His authority was self-evident in His miracles. Imagine that. His miracles, His teaching, and the witness of John, but their willful unbelief, these religious leaders, their unbelief shut the door to grace. I mean, I am pretty sure that a lot of these religious leaders have saw the miracles that Jesus did. Have heard the teaching that Jesus taught. And heard the authority that was coming out of His mouth. Yet, they were still pushing Him away. Saying, no, this couldn’t be. Because they were worried about their own prestige. They were unwilling to lower themselves so that He would be raised. Right? Exactly what John the Baptist did. When Jesus came, He lowered Himself. To allow Jesus to be raised. That’s how we should be living our lives. So, what do we do with this passage? What do we do with this passage? Well, first, we have to submit to the absolute authority of Jesus Christ. We have to submit to Him. The question of the Pharisees, the question every human being must face. Who gave Jesus the right to rule? And what’s the answer to that? Well, the answer is God the Father. He’s already had that authority. Remember, God, He submits to God the Father. Even though they’re one, right? You have three persons in one. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. You have the Trinity, the Holy Trinity. But Jesus, He submits to God the Father.

Jesus isn’t asking to be your co-pilot. He doesn’t want a timeshare in your life. He claims total, sovereign authority, or excelsior, over your finances, your sexuality, your career, your mind, and your eternity. Everything. Everything we have that’s good is from Him. Everything that’s good that we have is His. We are just stewards of it. You can’t negotiate with the King of Kings. You have to bow to Him. You have to confess His name. You have to be Lord over all. King of Kings, Lord of Lords. Theophilus, Omega. We’re all powerful. So, first, you have to submit to the absolute authority of Jesus. Secondly, be aware of religious pragmatism. Be aware of religious pragmatism. The religious leaders were completely devoid of truth, because they were consumed with optics of how they looked. They made decisions based on how it would affect their comfort and their reputation. That’s all they were worried about, is their reputation. They would never humble themselves. We can fall into the exact same trap. Pastors these days, they make themselves appear so righteous and holy, rather than just saying, you know, I’m a sinner, just like you all. They want their reputation to be pristine. And we, as pastors, as leaders, even as a Christian yourself, we ought to be striving for living that righteous and holy life. Not to be saved, but because we are saved. And because we have the Holy Spirit indwelling in us. And remember, when you do something wrong, you’re going to be convicted of that. Now, we’re not perfect sinners. I mean, we’re not perfect Christians. Because we are sinners. And even as a pastor, I still sin, unfortunately. And I hate it.

Did I ever tell you guys about what had recently happened? Well, this was a few months ago. Did I tell you about that? Where someone saw, we were, I was pulling out of the garage. Did I tell you about this yet? Pulling out of the garage. So we live in an underground parking garage. And we came up, and we stopped at Heather’s. Oh, I forgot my phone. So I said, okay, let me just kind of crawl up to the side. And then she ran out, ran back upstairs to grab the phone. And I just waited there. But I pulled up on the side to where there’s a little bit more room. And the guy behind me was honking his horn. And I was trying to wave him, go ahead and go. And he pulls up next to me, opens his window. And he says, come on, man. Common sense. And I said, oh, I’m sorry. You know, I was trying to explain to him. But he takes off. He’s back. He’s at a stoplight. And Heather finally comes in and pulls up to turn right. Or he’s turning left. And we’re at the stoplight. And he’s still, you know, like calling me crazy. Like, what’s going on? And I’m upset. I jump out of the Jeep. And I tell him to lower his window down. And I was on the passenger side. And I was trying to explain to him. But I was upset at the same time. Now I’m a pastor. And guess where we were headed. We were headed here. To church. And I’m getting ready to preach. Now this was a few months ago. And all that time. Becky was there. Becky was there. All that time. The months that have gone by. The Holy Spirit has been just convicting my heart. You need to go see this guy and apologize. Right? Because every time I see him, we ignore each other. You know, he has two dogs. And I have a dog. And whenever we run into each other, we just kind of turn. But there’s a conviction in my heart.

And then about three days ago. I walked into the elevator. Door opened to his camera. All by himself. I walked in. And I’m thinking. Lord, is this you answering my prayer? Or are you pushing me out? And I turned over to him. I said, look, I’m so sorry for what I did. And he looks at me and says, for what? I said, for jumping out of the Jeep. And getting upset. He said, oh, don’t worry about it. That’s the past. And now I’m moving forward. He says, it’s okay. I said, well, no, it’s not okay. Because I shouldn’t have done that. I asked for you to forgive me. He says, okay, it’s cool. And after that, it felt like a ton of bricks just being lifted off my back. And I’m just feeling, oh, Lord, thank you for that. Because I always try to avoid him. And every time I saw him, my blood pressure was going up. And so what I’m saying is we, when we’re Christians, when we’re true Christians, when we do something to sin, that conviction ought to get to us, right? We’re being convicted by the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit dwells in us. And that’s a good sign that you truly are a Christian, right? And I don’t want you to think I’m perfect. I am not. I am the chief sinner. And I want you to think and I want you to know that you are not perfect. So really, the question is, do you base your convictions on the clear teaching of the word of God? Or do you stick your finger in the air and you lick it and put it in the wind to see which way the wind is blowing or which way culture is blowing, you know? To see what the culture will tolerate. If you love the approval of men, you’ll eventually compromise what you’ve oppressed.

So thirdly, heed the warning of divine silence. Heed the warning of divine silence. If God is dealing with your heart today about a specific sin, or if the Holy Spirit is drawing you to salvation, don’t play games with Him. Don’t say, I’ll figure this out later, or plead willful ignorance like the Pharisees did, like the religious leaders did. There comes a point where if you continually reject the light, the light is removed. Your heart will be hardened. Just like when Jesus didn’t throw the pearls to swine. He said, I already told you, you’ve seen my miracles, that’s it, I’m done. He dusted his sandals off and he moved on. Remember, today is the day of salvation. Today is the day of salvation. So why was Jesus so zealous to cleanse the physical temple? Because this temple, with all its animal sacrifices and rituals, was merely a shadow pointing to Him. So Jesus was purifying the shadow because the substance had finally arrived. Jesus is the substance of that shadow. You have the light, who is God, the shadow was all the ritualistic things that the Jews were doing, were sacrificing, but now Jesus actually was there. He’s the substance of what they were practicing. He’s the final sacrifice. No more sacrifices need to be made because He’s walking toward Jerusalem. He’s going to take on the cross and the torture that He’s going to take, and then He’s going to be nailed to that cross, and He’s going to die on the cross, and then His body’s going to be taken down, be buried, and three days later, He’s resurrected. He’s now seated right ahead of the Father. He was there. He was a shadow, or a substance of the shadow, that finally arrived.

Again, in a few days, Jesus doesn’t merely cleanse the building, He would offer Himself as the final perfect sacrifice to cleanse His people from their sins. The religious elite demanded to know His authority. His ultimate authority to forgive sins would be demonstrated when He laid down His life on the cross, absorbing the furious wrath of God against our rebellion, and taking it back up again three days later in power. And when Jesus died, what happened in the temple? The veil tore. The veil in that very temple was torn in two. From the top down. From heaven down. It was tore from top to bottom. The corrupt priesthood was put out of business forever. Access to God is no longer brokered by extortionists in a building. Access to God is granted freely by the sovereign grace through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Everything that Jesus did on that cross, His work on the cross, is all we need. We don’t earn His access through our works, our morality, or our religious rituals. There are so many false religions that have rituals. And those rituals mean nothing to God. We come empty handed, trusting entirely in the religious work of the true temple of the Lord Jesus Christ. We don’t need a priest. We don’t need an intermediary that’s a creation of God. A man or a woman or the trees or the stars or the sun. We don’t need any of that. We have Jesus Christ, our only intermediary. What He did on that cross is a work that reconciles us to God. Not the good things that you think you’re doing, but what Jesus did on that cross.

Now, it doesn’t mean that, well, since Jesus did that on the cross, that means I’m saved, right? It means that I can do whatever I want since all my sins are forgiven. No, that’s wrong. Because when you’re truly converted, your lifestyle changes. We’re not sinless, but we sin less. We don’t sin as much. We start to change. We start to get convicted when we’re sinning. The way you were prior to, before Christ, BC, before Christ, and if you compare yourself today, you’re out of a big difference. If there’s not much of a difference, either you’re a new Christian and you’ve started to mature, but if it’s the same or you’re still living that same lifestyle, I can tell you this alone, that you need to reevaluate your faith.