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Speaker: Jerry Cisar
Pure worship is important to Jesus! The first murder in the Bible grew out of envy—envy over accepted vs. unaccepted worship (Genesis 4:3-8). In the account of the woman at the well Jesus makes a bold declaration about worship. “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” (John 4:23-24)
That isn’t the first account in John’s Gospel about worship. Jesus cleansing he temple with whip in hand is also about worship—pure worship. The story is cited when talking about the humanity of Jesus, showing that even Jesus got angry. But the point isn’t that He got angry. We must ask, “Why is He angry?” Jesus didn’t just show up, see what was going on in the temple, and explode with anger. We’ll see that He arrived looking for these money-changers and carried out a plan. Why? He was motivated by a desire for pure worship!
Our worship must be built on the truths which Jesus is pointing us to in the text. If it is not, might we have the equivalent of Jesus come with a whip through our house of worship?