Episode Transcript
Well, good morning. Good to see everyone. We're going to be looking at John chapter 2 verses 13 through 25. And while you're turning to that, a couple things I'd like to remind you of. One is that it concerns the museum of course. We need more docents in there. I'm running very thin on docent people. They keep moving away. I don't know if it's the job or what, but they move to another state. But we're going to have some training for you if you would like to do two types of tours. One is a short tour. The other is a longer tour. The shortest where you just introduce the museum, welcome the people, get the door open. The second is a full tour and you need to learn about every piece of the museum. It takes a little bit more time. Anyhow, you know about that. Another is just an interesting thing happening today for me. And I didn't realize it until actually last week. This is February 25th. I know where I was on February 25th in 1986. I was in that building preaching. That was my first Sunday here. So we're still here. And I was thinking who is here that was on that first Sunday? I see Phyllis back there, Garland and Jan. The youngest, this is going to get me, the youngest one here that was there at that time is Lance Pettit. And I'm not going to ask how old you are now, but you were born at least before 1986. So that was a great Sunday. I enjoyed it. And guess what? We moved into the Parsnidge that week on Monday and Tuesday and it was raining then too. Okay? So it's quite a journey. So it's been fun. It's not kind of fun. It's been fun. We're going to read this morning from about the cleansing of the temple in John chapter two. And let me look at that verse and you can follow along with me. I'll read the whole passage. The Passover of the Jews was near and Jesus went up to Jerusalem and he found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves and the money changers seated at their tables. He made a scourge of cords and drove them all out of the temple with the sheep and the oxen and he poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. And to those who were selling the doves, he said, "Take these things away. Stop making my father's house a place of business." And his disciples remember that it was written, "Zill for your father's house will consume me." The Jews then said to him, "What sign do you show us as your authority for doing these things?" And Jesus answered them, "You destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up." The Jews then said, "It took 46 years to build this temple and will you raise it up in three days?" But he was speaking of the temple of his body. So when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken. Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover during the feast, many believed. He believed in his name, observing his signs which he was doing. But Jesus on his part was not entrusting himself to them for he knew all men and because he did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for he himself knew what was in man. Let's pray. Our Father, thank You for Your Word. Help us to understand it. Help us to get the meaning from this that You have in mind. Help me to convey that and we pray that our hearts and minds would be open to receive what You want to say to us today. Again, thank You for Your Word. Thank You for Jesus. Thank You for You. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Now as we read this cleansing of the temple from John, I'm sure we will have a lot of questions. Usually all that someone will take away from this is, "Wow, Jesus got mad." And that's it. Man, there's a lot more. That's not... He wasn't even mad. Okay? That wasn't the word that's used here. Why, the why, when, where, and what, they all need some explanation. And the first question is, "Why did He go up to Jerusalem?" The Bible says very clearly, well, actually He goes down to Jerusalem because He's up north and He goes south. But geographically, that's how it's true, but realistically, Jerusalem was so important in people's minds because the temple being there, you always went up. No matter where you were, you went up to Jerusalem. And the reason Jesus went there was because it was Passover time. It was one of those three festivals that the families of Israel journeyed to Jerusalem to celebrate every year. And this one reminded the people of God's grace in delivering them from the bondage in Egypt. And every family or group, they went annually to sacrifice an animal that would be shared by up to 30 people, and in this case, a lamb. And they traveled from everywhere. And they came by the hundreds of thousands, not just thousands, hundreds of thousands. It was crowded, the resources were limited, and the priests learned that it was a time to make some money, some easy money, and a lot of it. And we'll see some of that in a few minutes. What Jesus saw would have been impressive. Can bring the lights down a little bit so we can see more of what I want to show you on the screen. Okay, go to the first picture. There it is. What else can we bring down to see this clear? I don't need lights here, but you... What else? Yeah, back in the back there, Paul. Need to see this pretty clear. The screen back there is right... Oh, there we go. Oh, now we're there. This is the Jerusalem Temple at the time of Jesus. It's an artist's conception because there's nothing left of it except this wall right here in the floor up here. And I want you to just note a few things on here. One would be the temple itself right there. The temple platform and was considered the temple... Jesus called it the entire thing, the temple. He called it his father's house. And you see here, from here to here is 1,600 feet. That's over five football fields. Here to here is another 1,000 feet. You got three football fields there. So you got a total about 15 football fields on this site. And this was the temple platform. This is all still here. Not that. There's a Muslim mosque, not a mosque. It's a holy site there called the Dome of the Rock. But this... We'll look closer at what we got here, but notice this structure here. This was a way to get in. It's called the arch. It's called Robinson's Arch. These are the southern steps. And there's an entrance. You had entrance there, entrance there. Nobody used that was an exit. And then you had an entrance here. One over here called the Eastern Gate that we don't see. So this is what we had. Now go to the next slide. Okay. I wanted to show you this. This is a model that you can view in Jerusalem. It's called... It's the temple model. And this is that Robinson's Arch that we saw. And now go to the next slide. That's the arch of Robinson's Arch in the 1880s. Look at the next slide. That's the arch today. And this has all been cleared out and dug out because everything you saw in that first slide was destroyed by the Romans in 8070. Now go to the next slide. These are those southern temple steps that we talked about. They're still there. That's the gate entrance. See that little arch? It's still there hidden. And so these things... Jesus would have taught from those steps. This is half of them there. Just keep those things in mind. Let's go to the next one. Okay. Now this one explains things. I want you to keep focus on where we're at and what Jesus would have seen. The temple itself is only 90 feet. 90 by 30. It's not a big building. The holy of holies right there in the middle, right there at the end. That's only 30 by 30. So you don't have a... It's not very big, but you got this whole area here. See where the light's at? That is called the court of the Gentiles. That was given for Gentiles to go in and worship God. It should have been a holy place, a solemn place for the Gentiles to come because they could not go beyond those little balustrades there. See that little ring around the temple? You could not go there. You can see the southern steps. You see the arch. This is Wilson's arch. All that's left today is the wailing wall or the Westing wall. And that's really foundations. It's not a part of the temple. This is the most holy place in all Judaism to go there today and worship God and pray. Now, so I want you to keep in mind that where we're at and where Jesus was. When Jesus went into the temple at this time for this passage of Scripture, he was out here. He wasn't in there. The court of the women is in there. Women could go in there. The court of the men, Jewish men of Israel was right there and the priests could go farther to do the sacrifices and do the services in the worship of God. Let's go to the next picture. This is a Lane Rittmeyer's artist's reconstruction of what the balustrade would have looked like. This is where they go in and there'd be a sign right there. And it said something unique. I'll tell you what it said in a minute. But go to the next slide. This is one that was found. Okay? And go to the next one in 1935. Another one was found. That's this one right here. And by the way, we happen to have it here today. Not really. This came out of the museum. Okay? This is a replica. It's made out of plaster. Okay? But that's its exact replica. Pretty good, huh? Take your time and look at it afterwards. I got ten tonight. It's kind of hard to lift that thing. So what we got here, that was one of two warning signs. And the first one I showed you was found in 1871. It's now in Istanbul. It was taken away from Israel during the Ottoman period. And the second one, again, it's found in 1936. Now what it was, they were -- they had one at every balustrade. And one would be in Latin. The next one would be in Greek. We get this all from Josephus and the Mishnah and a few other writings afterwards. And here's what this sign said and the other one as well. "No stranger is to enter within the balustrade, round the temple, and enclosure. Whoever is caught will be himself responsible for his ensuing death." In other words, Gentiles, don't go in there. You have your place, don't go in. So that's what they were experiencing at that time. The first question we need to get to is why were the animals for sale in the temple? The answer is that it would be difficult for worshipers to bring their own animals from all over the world when you're traveling that far and it was a difficult journey. It was easier and more convenient to buy them when you got there. And also, you never knew if your lamb that you're bringing from home would be acceptable for sacrifice when the priest examined it. The lambs purchased at the temple, they were guaranteed to be accepted. So it was more logical and more convenient that you got one there in Jerusalem. Now another obligation that explains the money changers, the worshipers had to pay, if you were 20 years old and older, you had to pay an annual temple tax and these were dues for every male 20 years old and older. And it was paid once a year at one of the three major feasts where all the men and families came together in Jerusalem. Now the only certain coins would be acceptable because some had more silver content in them than others and they were more valuable. So the priest decided that only the Tyrian coins from Tyre were acceptable because of their higher silver content. So when you paid your tax, you had to exchange the money that you had wherever it's from for their acceptable money with an extra charge, of course, for the change. It's like every time I go to Jordan, you go to Jordan and there's an entrance fee to get into the country for a visa at the airport and it has to be paid in cash, no credit card, and it has to be in Jordanian money. So you get there and you had to, they put money changers and they're there 24 hours a day and they will exchange your currency for the money that you need in Jordanian money. So you're at their mercy as to what the rates are and for the rate of exchange. It's the same thing here. Only they were more corrupt than they are today. So the high priest and his friends, they got a commission every time an animal was purchased or money was exchanged. It's recorded that it was 15%. So you don't hear Jesus though complaining about this, about these services being offered. It was where the services were offered as we'll see in just a couple minutes. Now there are also some problems with this passage in some people's minds. John's account, see this is found in all four gospels in a form, but John's account is different from Matthew, Mark, and Luke which are called the synoptic gospels or meaning the same or similar. And John, he has this event at the very beginning of Jesus' ministry. He had just been to Cano Galilee before last week Nuba talked about that where he changed the water into wine. Well, the synoptics have it, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, have it at the end of Jesus' life and ministry, the last week of his life before the cross. So who's right? Did it happen at the beginning or did it happen at the end? Do you have an answer? Both, thank you. Many scholars don't get that. They still argue about it. No, there was two of them. There's two different events and it happened twice and you say, "Well, why are they still there if he kicked them out once?" Well, how long do you think it took for those animals and the money changers tables to get right back where they were after Jesus kicked them out? But as long as for my office to straighten the desktop for it to get just the way it was as before. He had to do this again later. Now, he made a whip of cords to drive them out and that seems to be all the people focus on. That is troubling to a lot of people. To them, it just doesn't match up with the character of Jesus they have in mind where they think that Jesus was a kind and loving which he was. That Jesus didn't get angry that erupted in violence which he did not. The answer, it was his father's house. He could do anything he wanted to do. That's one. Intruders had crept in and he could do what he wanted. See, guess where the money changers were? Guess where the animals were? Court of the Gentiles. Not in the side of the temple, proper, but where the court of the Gentiles were. And to them that wasn't holy ground but to Jesus he said it was his father's house no matter what. Besides, the whip of cords would not hurt anybody. The word used for reeds or rope. He fashioned some sort of a out of rope or reeds maybe even flax. It was used to drive animals out. I mean it's not going to hurt. Josh, if I wouldn't you drive out here and I had to rope it, you'd take it away from me. You wouldn't feel it. But it was used to drive animals. That's what you you don't lead animals you drive them and that's what he did. He drove them out at that point. Now you so what then is this event really all about? This passage reveals some very important characteristics of Jesus. We'll go through these real quick. The first word is zeal on your outline. We see here his zeal. Go ahead and show that next one. His zeal and there's a couple things underneath that that stands out. Don't need this anymore. His zeal. It's not called anger. The word is not anger. It's called zealoss which is we get a word zealot for and we get our word zealot and it means something an extraordinary concern for something. It means something that was just important to you more than anything else at the time. And he had a zeal for it and the problem was not that they were selling animals. Again that was a service and Jesus didn't complain about that. The problem was not the exchange of money. He takes issue with that later in Matthew and Luke where they talk about the exchanging of money but not even this first time. It's not to what it is about. It's where it was happening. Where was it happening? The problem was where they were doing this. It's the court of the Gentiles. You see now this was a place where Gentiles were supposed to worship God. It was a place for anyone to worship God. They could come and they couldn't go any farther into the temple. They could not sacrifice an animal. Jews did that, not the Gentiles, but they could go there. They could listen to the Levites singing on the inside. They could get a sense by hearing the animals on the inside. Well they all had them all around them. They could pray. They could worship God and Jesus honored that. But that area and it's big was transformed from a place of worship and prayer into a place of merchandise. John says, "Take these things away. Stop making my house a place of business." Matthew and Luke say, "My house shall be called a house of prayer but you make it a dinner robbers." And then Mark gets it too. "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations." Okay, but you've made it a dinner of thieves. So they would have taken issue with Jesus in the very first thing he said there. He said, "This is my Father's house." And to them the problem was with Jesus saying, "My Father's house." Later on in Matthew and Mark he says, "It's my house, my Father's house. Now it's my house. But when he said he is my Father, no Jew would say that. They would not allow anyone to have that close of a familiarity with God. But Jesus said, "He's my Father." They would not say that. So that got him into trouble right there. But this event also did something special. It fulfilled Scripture. And that's the first point there. And if you go, you can go back to Psalm 69 if you like to find out what this is about. Why did Jesus get upset? Later the disciples remembered this event and the Holy Spirit placed on their minds a Scripture from Psalm 69.9 which King David had written and they connected the dots. And after they experienced the resurrection of Christ they started letting the Spirit speak to them and they said, "Wow, there's a Scripture that explains why Jesus did what he did." Because Psalm 69 is quoted more times in the New Testament than any other Psalm. And this is classified as a Messianic Psalm where David wrote it under the inspiration of God but it is really in reference of the Messiah to come. He identifies with the Messiah. It's hard in that Psalm. Is he talking about David or is he talking about somebody else? Most of the time he's talking about the Messiah when he would come to be the real King of Israel. And it says, "For zeal for your Father's house has consumed me and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me." That's powerful. He's saying, "I have a zeal and a concern and a compassion for what happens here." And it's bigger than just sacrificing animals. It's bigger because he knew that that was all talking about what was going to happen to him in the future. The reproach of the sins of man. The punishment would fall on him. And he says, "That was the Messianic Psalm and that's why the disciples when they looked back upon it, they had the full picture in their mind now, they said, 'Yes, Jesus was crucified. He was raised from the dead. What did that mean? What was that about when he drove people out of the temple? When he drove the animals out? It's all about him." They weren't demonstrating proper worship as we talked about earlier. Imagine if you came to church today and all you could hear was a bleeding of sheep and mooing. And what else do animals do? Well, the male human animals were bargaining a lot of money. This is where people were supposed to worship God. And this concerned Jesus. It was standing in the way of the Gentiles from having an authentic worship experience. It was hindering others from making a connection with God. See, that's what worship is, isn't it, Josh? You're trying to lead people to make a connection with God somehow. It starts with you because that's how you make your connection with God. Let me ask, is that easy to do? Okay, it's not. It's not because everybody's on a different plane. It's a different level. But we all do the best we can. Even the message I'm bringing today, it's different level from others. It's different from what other men would do, whether it be Dubbo or whether it be less. But proper worship was what we're trying to get across. That's what his zeal included. Also, we go to the next point and it talks about his focus. His focus. And the first thing about his focus was the unhindered access to God. And he says here that his zeal will do what? It will consume me. That was a prophecy. That's what the disciples remembered. They said the reason Jesus did this was it would consume him. It means he was absorbed in it. He was engaged in it. He gave his entire attention and affection to it. It surpasses all other feelings at the moment. That's all you can think about. So that it may be said to be one great desire of the mind. In Jesus, this was the great commanding sentiment of his life to worship God and to have access to God and to bring that access to God. Why? Because he was the ultimate access to God. There's one God and one mediator between God and man, the one connecting point. That's who. It's Jesus. He did not want that hindered in any way. So the Father's house was to be a house for all, not just the Jews. Go to the next point. That's his authority. We find that in verse 18. Because the leaders said, "All right, we see what you did." They said, "What sign do you show us? What sign are you going to give us here as your authority for doing these things?" Again, the answer is that number one, it's his Father's house. He can do what he wants. But his authority was that he was God. It was his Father's house and he and the Father are one. He is God. He was invited. He has invited everyone to be at this place to worship him and they should not be denied that. To the Jews, they came up with a question. They said, "Why should we listen to you? What sign do you have to prove your authority? Do something for us." Change the water into wine. We heard about that. There's a lot of water over there. Go ahead and do it. Do something. And it's, they wanted something done on their terms when they wanted it. They wanted one now. Do one for us now. And Jesus says, "You want a sign?" I'll give you a sign. You tear down this temple and in three days, I will rebuild it. I'll raise it up again and they just started laughing. Because they thought he was talking about what temple? That one that they were standing on the grounds, the one they could look up and see the beauty. All the glory of Herod and the workers that took them to do this. You see, the reaction is in verse 20 and he says, "The Jews then said, 'It took 46 years to build this temple and were you raised up in three days?'" You see, King Herod started building that process, that building process in 20 BC and it lasted 46 years and really they were still building at the time of Christ and it went on. The whole process took about 80 years and it was beyond King Herod and it was completely done in AD 66 and it was destroyed in AD 70. So 80 years of work to make this glory and then God took it away by the Romans in AD 70 and is that what he's talking about? The answer is no. Verse 21 says that he was speaking of the temple of his body. He is the living presence of God in the mix of his people and the resurrection proved that point beyond a shadow of a doubt and when he said, "You destroy this temple, this temple, his body." You see, he was making an interesting statement there. He's saying, "This is not the temple of God. I am the temple of God. I am where God resides." He's not over there. He's here. He says, "You can have a worship experience here just like when we come together. We have a worship experience but this is not where God resides. He resides in you and in me." We are the temple as we'll see in a minute because from the scripture. See, the people misunderstood. In Matthew at the crucifixion, they still misunderstood. There was people walking by while Jesus was dying on the cross and this is what they said, "Ha! You who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days." See, they remembered that. "Save yourself if you are the Son of God. Come down from the cross demanding a sign." You see, that is the sign we want. They said, "Do it now. We know you can't do it." Well, guess what? He did it in a different way. Three days later, he did something bigger than that. He rose from the dead and people are always asking for the signs. The next point is his sign. Let's go to that one. It's like, "Show me a sign or I just won't believe in Jesus." Well, let me read a passage. The sign is his resurrection. If you go to Acts chapter 17 verses 30 and 31, it describes what Jesus' real authority is. This is his sign. Paul was talking and he said, "Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance." This is when he was on Mars Hill in Corinth, talking to philosophers, the wise men of the day. He says, "Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent because he has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom he has appointed having furnished proof." Get that? What's the authority? He furnished proof to all men by raising him from the dead. You want a sign? You won't find any better sign than that. The proof is the resurrection of the dead. Jesus was the temple. He will be torn down into death for three days and then rebuilt to new and resurrected eternal life and an indestructible power. That's what he's talking about. But he was speaking of the temple of his body in verses 21 and 22. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this. He was speaking of the temple of his body and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken. See, Jesus didn't complete a sign that day. He never demonstrated his authority so others could see. He's like he said, "Use weight. I'll show you authority." Do you understand what Jesus was saying and what the disciples finally understood? See, Herod's temple was not God's house. His temple, Jesus was the very presence of God in their midst. Jesus was where God resided in the form of a man and this is clear teaching throughout the New Testament. In Acts chapter 7, I'm going to give you a series of scriptures and I'll just read them and we'll close this out. In Acts chapter 7 verses 47 and 48, this is where Stephen was giving his last message on the history of Israel before they killed him. They stoned him. But this is what he says. He's talking about Solomon and the temple. He said, "But it was Solomon who built a house for him." That would be Solomon's temple, the one before Herod's. However, the most high does not dwell in houses made by human hands. As the prophet says, "Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool, my feet. What kind of a house will you build for me?" says the Lord. Or what place is there for my repose? What are you going to do to confine me? What kind of... I got the universe as my house. I don't need a little place. You see, in Acts 17, 24, Paul is at Corinth and I read this earlier, "The God who made the world and all things in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands." In 1 Corinthians 3, 16, Paul said, "Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells where?" In you. He carries it on in 1 Corinthians 6, 19, and 20. "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you whom you have from God and that you are not your own for you have been bought with a price? Therefore glorify God in your body, the temple." That's where God's at. And 2 Corinthians 6, 16, "Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God. Just as God said, 'I will dwell in them and walk among them and I will be their God and they shall be my people.'" I hope you're getting this today. I hope you're getting it. It can change your life when you understand that you don't just go to where God is when you come together on Sunday morning. You're going coming together as God's people. There's a lot of temples coming together celebrating the fact that God resides in you through the Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. When you converted to Christ, when Christ came into your life, the Holy Spirit, Romans describes the Holy Spirit as being poured into you. And the love came with that. All the fruit of the Spirit came at that point where you are actually God, not the God. You are the resident temple of God where God is working through you through His Holy Spirit into a world that knows nothing about God apart from the experience. And that's why we're getting to the final point. Got just enough time. That's His knowledge in verses 23 through 25. Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, see where Passover was still going on, He made it out of there and during the feast, sometime during the week, says many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing. So they saw, see that, He did do signs that week. He didn't do any for the priest on the temple mouth that day, but during the week He was probably healing people. He was teaching. He was doing things that they were astounded by and they observed His signs which He was doing and they believed. But Jesus on His part was not entrusting Himself to them for He knew all men and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man. See there's only one that can look deep inside of you and know what's going on. It's not a doctor. It's not a pastor. It's God. And He knows whether you are truly a believer or not. He knows whether He is residing in you in the form of the Holy Spirit when you put your faith in Jesus Christ. He knows if that really happened and He knows if the Spirit is within you. And if it's not there, the Spirit is not there, He's calling on people everywhere to repent and come to Him. It says that they believed in His name. They observed His signs. They believed in His miracles, not in Him, not in His teaching. They were not repentant. This was a false belief. It says in 24, "But Jesus did not entrust Himself to them." Why? Because He knew everything going on in their hearts, just like God can't does, because He is God and He was the temple of God in their midst at that time. And He said He knew what they were thinking. And then it says He didn't need their testimony. Why? Because He knew what was in them. And admiration of Jesus is not enough. A desire for more and more miracles is not enough. I'll close with just Romans chapter 10 verses 9 through 13 because this is how one comes to God through Jesus Christ. And it's very important that we get this. And though it's simple, it's short, it says, "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord." Okay, it's an outward confession. Some of these were at the time of Jesus were confessing outwardly. "Come on, He must be the Son of God." And believe in your heart within that God has raised Him from the dead. You will be saved. For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness. And with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, "Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed. Whoever believes in Him will be saved." It's a powerful passage to remind us that when we come to Christ, how do you come to Christ? You believe His Word and especially the greatest miracle that was ever performed, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Because that proclaimed Him to be God. It proclaimed Him that His resurrection was because He had been crucified. And His crucifixion was where He took upon your sin and my sin and made it possible for every man, woman, boy, or girl to be forgiven of their sin. And if you call upon His name, call upon His name. What name? The name of the God who saves. The name of Jesus who is the one who died for you. And then you believe in your heart within that He was raised from the dead, meaning everything that the Bible says about Him is true. I believe that. And me personally, I believe it with all my heart. And I address you today hoping that if you have not reached that point and when you believe in Christ, He comes to reside in you. The temple of God at the time of men who reside with men now resides in us. He does it into His Holy Spirit. It's a spiritual thing. It's supernatural. But things start happening that are different for you. You have a new life. You have a new direction. You think differently. Everything's different because you've called upon Him. And now you confess Him with your mouth. Why? Because you believed in your heart. And I hope that you will do that today if you haven't already. If you have already, rejoice. Just rejoice. And I hope, I hope you have a better understanding of what happened that day. It wasn't about Jesus getting bad. It wasn't about Him driving animals out. There's a lot more to it. Little God bless us now as we have our time of prayer. Thank you for Jesus who makes it all possible. Thank you for the Holy Spirit who resides within us, enabling us to serve you in a world that is hostile to you, to have an assurance in our heart that all is well, to understand why Jesus died, why He was raised, and help us, Lord, to just understand what a wonderful life it can be in Christ. And we pause to say thank you for that life. Thank you for an understanding of this passage today. And please, Lord God, help us to apply it to our lives. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
