Sermon File

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and may our Lord and Savior sanctify you in the truth, for His word is truth. Amen

Tenth Sunday after Trinity (2025)                         

Do you revere God, Do You Revere His House?                                                            Rev. Toby Byrd

“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.”” (Luke 19:45–46, ESV) 

Jesus says, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.” (Luke 19:46, ESV) These are words of anger by our Lord Jesus for the people have turned His Father’s house into a bazaar, a marketplace for doing business and earning a profit. Oh, not for the Lord mind you, but for themselves. The people had turned away from God, rejecting the reason He required a house to be built for Himself. God desired a place where His presence could dwell among His people, a place where they could make sacrifices for their sins and be assured of His forgiveness and mercy. As for a place for God to dwell among His people, nothing has changed. God still desires a house for Him to dwell in. But, on the other hand, one thing has changed, God’s house is no longer a place where the people make sacrifices for their sins. Instead, today, God’s house is a place where the people come to receive the benefits of the one time, final and all perfect sacrifice of the Lamb of God without blemish: God’s holy son, Jesus Christ, who shed His blood on the Altar of the Cross for the forgiveness of sins for all mankind. Today, people come into God’s house to receive what God so desires to give them, His mercy poured out upon them, His forgiveness. We’re reminded that Jesus once said, “Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”” (Matthew 9:13, ESV) So, God’s house is a house for sinners.

St. Luke tells us that Jesus is drawing nearer and nearer to Jerusalem, to the center of God’s holiness, the temple. But before entering the city, Jesus pauses to contemplate the sad situation God’s people have gotten themselves into. Looking down on the city, Jesus weeps and cries out, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.” (Luke 19:42, ESV) In these words we hear the suffering prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Hosea, all caught up in the rage, anguish, frustration, and sorrow of God for Israel. These are but a precursor of His words as He makes His way to Golgotha and to the cross. There on the via Del la Rosa, Jesus cries out to the daughters of Jerusalem, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.” (Luke 23:28, ESV) Tears for Jerusalem are tears for His people, tears for their spiritual welfare. Those who He chastises, He chastises for not knowing or believing in the things that make for peace, chastising them for their lack of faith. He chastises A people who should have been faithful, but who became faithless because of the hardness of their hearts, and in dismissing God, they will soon become accessors to the murder of God’s holy Son, Jesus Christ, the very Messiah for whom they were waiting.

Ezekiel reminds us that God had abandoned the temple during his days (Ezek. 10:18). That is, God, as covenant God, withdrew His gracious presence from the people of Israel, departing the temple. However, He did not depart from the whole covenant nation of Israel, but only from the rebellious Israelites who lived in Jerusalem and Judah. So God continued to keep His covenant with His righteous people, but laid His judgment on a corrupt generation, desiring to remove their ungodly nature and create a new and holy people for Himself.

But God did not abandon the temple forever. He returns to the temple at the purification of Mary, when God the Son, Jesus Christ is presented, and Simeon takes Him into his arms to thank God the Father that he has now seen the salvation that God has prepared for His people. God in Christ also returns as a lad of twelve, and He returns for the final time at the beginning of the last week of His human existence on earth. Upon entering the city, St. Luke tells us that Jesus went directly to the temple, to the house where His Father dwelled.

This was no ordinary house, but one fit for God with degrees and levels of holiness in connection with the presence of God. Furthermore, the degree of holiness increased from room to room as one approached the dwelling place of God; the Holy of Holies where God was enthroned on the cherubim over the ark of the covenant. Like the tabernacle, the temple area was comprised of an outer court where ceremonially clean Israelites could gather to participate in sacrifices, an inner court where the sacrifices were performed, an outer porch which was the entrance to the Holy place of the temple, and from the Holy place, through the curtain, to the Holy of Holies, God’s dwelling place. Thus, each of these temple areas had higher degrees of holiness.

But upon entering the temple, Jesus found the temple desecrated by God’s people, and He “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.”” (Luke 19:45–46, ESV) Although the temple was the center of their worship, there was a lack of reverence for the house of God. The people treated God’s house the way they treated their faith, ignoring it during good times, calling on it during bad times. There faith was fickle and fleeting, calling upon it only when disaster struck, only when fear drove them to God. Thus, theirs is not a faith in a holy God who promises life eternal. It is faith in a god who will come to their rescue in time of trouble, rescuing them from their enemies. So, any god would do, just name him. And the Scripture tell us of the many times the people of Jerusalem chased after false gods. Sadly, this is the false faith many have today. If things are going well, they love God. But when things go awry, they curse Him or seek other gods. Such is the lack of reverence many today have for God and for His house. So, the question of the days is: Do you revere God, Do You Revere His House?

It’s amazing, how many call themselves followers of Christ, yet have little or no knowledge that God still dwells in His house, dwelling there to serve His people, to grant them His mercy. Too many today think they come to God’s house to serve Him rather than to be served by Him.

If we were to compare the temple itself to the modern church, we could find many similarities. The outer porch of the temple is equivalent to the narthex of the modern church, the Holy place of the temple finds its equivalency in the Nave, and the Holy of Holies would be equivalent to the chancel, where the chancel furnishings bespeak of God and provide for His dwelling. God’s Word is proclaimed from both the lectern and the pulpit, and the altar, no longer an altar for sacrifices, but an altar for the Sacrificed One, is comparable to the mercy-seat of God before which we prostrate ourselves, pleading for forgiveness, the forgiveness God eagerly desires to grant for the sake of His holy Son, Jesus Christ the king of righteousness and peace by whose atoning death God opened His heart to pour out His mercy upon us

The mercy-seat of God is God’s seat of forgiveness and pardon for our sinful actions, substituting His Son’s righteousness for our sinfulness. For Christ alone is our righteousness until we are made to conform to His image. Thus, unlike the temple worshipper who did not have unfettered access to the Holy of holies, the mercy-seat of God, the Christian has the exulted advantage of having unfettered access to the mercy-seat of God. There is no curtain separating the Holy place from the Holy of holies. Therefore, entering by faith in Christ Jesus into the “Holy of holies, the chancel, the Christian enters the place where God dwells. Our High Priest, Jesus Christ has entered there too, sprinkling His blood over the mercy-seat. Thus, all who are in Christ Jesus have been given the greatest privilege ever granted to man, the near and constant access to the mercy-seat of God. Furthermore, unlike the Jew who had access to the mercy-seat only once a year through the intercession of the High Priest, the Christian, even the humblest Christian, has access to the mercy-seat every day of the year, every day of their life. There is no Christian so humble, so poor, so obscure, or so ignorant that they may not come and speak to God. For Christ invites us all saying, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28, ESV) Thus, we come. We are like the sinful tax collector who would not even lift his eyes to heaven, but who beats his breast, crying out to God, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” (Luke 18:13, ESV) Rather than try to justify ourselves, we prostrate ourselves before the mercy-seat of God and plead for mercy, asking, “Father, forgive us lest we perish.” For, we are all sinners in need of God’s mercy, in need of the forgiveness won for us by His beloved Son, Jesus Christ. Moreover, Christ comes to us, atop the mercy-seat, on the altar, when the elements of holy communion are consecrated. His body and His blood become present in, under, and with the bread and wine of holy communion waiting to be given to those who believe in Him and yearn for Him to become a part of them that they may receive the forgiveness He promises in His holy supper. He cries out to all, come to the mercy-seat of God and you will receive what you seek.

So how sad it is today to see what are loosely called churches, houses of God which have eliminated the chancel, the Holy of holies. Eliminating the pulpit, the lectern, and the altar. Eliminating the awareness of God’s presence with the entertainment stage and the praise band. Eliminating the mercy-seat of God, eliminating the very presence of God. Such places are not revering God. Many worship centers are designed today with in-house fast-food restaurants, bookstores, and other retail outlets. Thus, the question must be asked, is God really in their presence? Is He serving them, or are they serving the god of entertainment, the god of self-righteousness? When Jesus returns will He not say to them, “‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.” 

Sadly, today words such as holy and sacred have been removed from much of the Christian vocabulary. For so many focus their efforts on making themselves holy rather than the effort of Christ to cleans them from sin. Thus, we pray that those who have turned God’s house into a retail market or a place of entertainment will soon come to true faith in the Son of the Living God and worship Him according to His Father’s desire. To worship Him in His house of prayer where He comes to dwell with them on the mercy-seat.

As Jesus was moved to tears concerned about the spiritual welfare of men in His day, because they knew not the things that belonged to their peace, He is still concerned about such men today. Although in His state of exaltation Jesus no longer weeps as He did in His state of humiliation, His love is nevertheless the same. His love is so great that, humanly speaking, from heaven He must still weep when His Gospel of salvation and His gracious days of visitation are so often rejected by men. How it must sadden His heart and deeply grieve Him when men still go heedlessly on their way, indifferent to His love, cold to His plea. We can see Him beholding the world of men and weeping tears of appeal and earnest supplication over them, because they will not know the things that belong to their peace.

Jesus weeps because the spiritual ignorance which He bewailed in His day is still rampant today among men. In spite of the wide-spread proclamation of the Gospel so many do not know that He is the Way to the Father. So many are still trying to reach heaven through their own good works. The teaching of Modernism. Rejection of Jesus as their sole Savior, even as the Son of God. Denial of the saving power of His blood alone but adding to it their works. Thus, spiritual ignorance still stalks the land, and Jesus weeps because men know not the things that belong to their peace.

Jesus weeps because men pass by the one thing needful. In the hustle and bustle of complex lives, false values are often placed on passing things. In their effort to find contentment men pass by the peace of God that passes understanding. Struggling to secure riches, they neglect the true riches of God in Christ Jesus. Seeking to find comfort and hope they see not the Rock of our salvation. Therefore, spiritual blindness hides from their eyes the things that belong to peace.

Your Savior weeps over you if you continue to go on in your sins, and trample His holy blood under foot, if you neglect His holy Word, if you despise His Holy Supper, and if you permit the interest and care of this life to take first place in your heart. All these things cause your Savior to weep tears of disappointment over you.

But I implore you, cause Him no tears today. Do you not know that your sins caused Him unspeakable anguish when He went to the cross and died the excruciating death of crucifixion on the Altar of the Cross for you. When He gave His life for your salvation? If so, then let not Your Savior weep over you today. He has given you the Holy Spirit in the blessed waters of Baptism and through the hearing of the Gospel giving you the gift of faith to turn to Christ in repentance, that you may hear His blessed words of absolution. Those words by which He gives your weary soul rest, granting you the one thing you need for peace, His loving, merciful forgiveness. Go to His house in reverence, revering the One who sits on the mercy-seat of God, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Entering His temple, prostrate yourself before His altar and beat your breast, admitting that you are a sinner in great need of His loving mercy, and He will hear your plea and grant you what you desire, His forgiveness. For it is His desire to forgive you all your sins. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

May the Peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.