The Temple Destroyed for Us

We join me in prayer. Father, we look to you now. May you bless us with your Holy Spirit to open up your word. Help us, Lord, to see the glory of your son. Help us to see the glory that was revealed in his death and his resurrection. Lift up our hearts. Remove, Lord, the sin that keeps us from seeing the true light. Penetrate our hearts, Lord. Convict us. Change us to be better, sharper instruments that glorify you. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. We live as a confident people. I'm assuming looking around that Well, everyone here, they woke up this morning and you were confident the sun was going to be shining eventually. Rather, you woke up before the sun or afterwards. You had confidence because you know the sun rises every morning. You have confidence that the sun is going to rise. Some of us, we had to have confidence to get out of bed that there will be coffee available. Some of us more than others. We had confidence when we get in the car that we crank it, it's going to turn on. We have confidence that when we ate breakfast, it was going to give us the nutrition we need and not make us sick. We live as confident people because we experience routine things in life and we just grow to not even think that we need to expect these things. They just happen. My question for you this morning is, are you confident in the Savior, Jesus Christ? Are you confident in his love and his power and what he has said about you that you're forgiven? You're justified. You're a child of God. Are you confident in Christ? If not, is it because you are not routinely experiencing him in prayer and study and fellowship and seeking him? You see, we grow confident when we experience something over and over and over again. We lose confidence when we fail to do so. We're a forgetful people. When we start pursuing sin and not the Savior, our confidence wavers. Friends, we can have confidence in Christ. We can have a great confidence in who he is, what he has done and what he says about us. We're looking to John. We're in John, chapter two, as we continue to read through the gospel and study it together. So far, for those of you who have been with us in the prologue of John 1, 1 through 18, we see that Jesus is the creator. He was the word in the beginning. Everything was created through him. We see that he is the light of the world. He has come through the darkness to illuminate the dark world so that we can see the truth of God. He's a word become flesh. He's a son of God, full of grace and truth. We then saw that he was the Lamb of God, as John the Baptist declared twice. He's the Messiah, the King of Israel. He is the Son of God. This morning, as we look to Christ and we look to John, as he continues to build up the story from the bridegroom who bled for us, we now will see in chapter two, he is the temple. He is how we worship God, because his body was torn apart, was destroyed for us, and he is raised again to life. And that is where our confidence must be. Turn with me in your Bible and let us read together John 2, beginning in verse 12. If you're using a pew Bible that can be found on page 887. John 2, beginning in verse 12. After this, he, speaking of Jesus, went down to Capernaum with his mother and his brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days. The Passover of the Jews was at hand and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple, he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons and the money changers sitting there and making a whip of cords. He drove them all out of the temple with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold pigeons, take these things away, do not make my father's house a house of trade. His disciples remembered that it was written zeal for your house will consume me. The Jews said to him, what sign do you show us for doing these things? Jesus answered them. Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. The Jews then said it has taken 46 years to build this temple and will you raise it up in three days? But he was speaking about the temple of his body when therefore he was raised from the dead. His disciples remember that he had said this and they believe the scripture in the word that Jesus had spoken. Now, when he was in the Jerusalem at the Passover feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus, on his part, did not entrust himself to them because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man. As we begin to look at our story, we have a setting. That's really verses 12 and 13. We have a setting and verse 12 functions as a transition from the wedding at Cana where Christ is the bridegroom who pours out his blood for his bride to save her to the next major event when he goes up to Jerusalem for Passover. And I just want to point this out. John is very careful to show the sequential chronology in this part of the story. He's starting his gospel with very clear chronological order. That's important because the Synoptic Gospels, they also have a temple cleansing in them. There's John's Gospel, then there's Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And the Matthew, Mark, and Luke, they have a temple cleansing at the end of his ministry. Right at the triumphal entry, Christ goes into the temple and he throws his people out, just like he does in this story. Now, some have said John, the evangelist, he's taking the temple cleansing that happened after his ministry and he's moving it chronologically to the beginning. Now, let me say this. John would be perfectly, it would be perfectly legitimate for him to do this. If he's writing a theological history, as he is, he's making a theological point. The authors of the scriptures, as led by the Holy Spirit, they can take certain events and order them as they see fit to make theological points. They're not bound to the chronological history that we expect. But I don't think that's what John's doing. I think we see here that there's two temple cleansings. Jesus begins his ministry in Jerusalem at Passover by cleansing the temple. And that's how he ends it as well. I believe this is the first of two. And the evidence here is he says different things. It's a different purpose. It's a different accusation. And John, he's showing a chronology here that's very clear and explicit. Now verse 13 is the primary setting. It tells us when and where. when and where the Passover of the Jews was at hand and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. The Passover is the key celebration, the key event for Israel, just as Easter is the key season for Christians because we celebrate the risen Savior. Everything hinges upon Easter for us. But for Israel, everything was hinged upon the Passover. The Passover, as we saw in Exodus, It's a remembrance of when God delivered his people from Egypt, when he instructed the people of Israel to put blood over their doorposts. And so when the spirit of God came, he passed over their homes. It was God providing forgiveness. It was God providing deliverance. It was the great rescue of God for his people. And the time of the Passover is when they slaughtered lambs for the sins of the people. in the temple in remembrance of God's Passover in Egypt, the rescue from Egypt, looking forward to a new rescue. Now the place is Jerusalem. It's the religious center of Israel. Now notice it says they went up. Now this doesn't mean they actually climbed the mountain. Jerusalem is a, if you're in Israel, it's somewhat of a puny hill, really. If you look at it, there's other mountains or there's other hills all around it. It's not really the most defensive structure. God chose a place that Israel trusts Him to protect them. Going up really speaks of its importance. It'll be like somebody from New York saying, we're going up to Washington, D.C. Now, no one from New York would ever say that. But Washington, D.C. being the capital of the nation, it shows the importance of the city. So everyone goes up to Jerusalem because it is the religious capital. It's the religious center of the nation. There's something else I want to point out here. We've pointed out a number of ways that you can track John's stories. You can track John's development. You have the I Am statements. You could track the various ways that John has Jesus saying, I am, I am the bread of life. You could track it that way. You could also track it with the different signs. And so last week, the wedding of Canaan was a sign of the water being turned to wine. You can also trace the storyline of John with a different Passover visits in Jerusalem. Here's the first one. It's in chapter two, 13. That's the first visit to Jerusalem. The second is chapter six, verse four. And the third is 1155 and 12-1. The third is the last time Jesus will go up to Jerusalem during Passover. That's the setting. The most important religious event and the most important religious city. Jesus goes in. And now the tension. Verses 14 through 20. The first thing we see here is that Jesus finds a market where he should find worship. In the temple, he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons and the money changers sitting there and making a whip of cords. He 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 he told those who sold the pigeons, take these things away. Do not make my father's house a house of trade. Now, notice the main charge here is that it's a house of trade in the Synoptic Gospels. In the next temple cleansing, it'll actually be that it's a den of robbers. You've made the house of God a den of robbers. You're cheating the people here. It's a it's a it's a different accusation. It's a different charge. You're doing things in the temple that do not belong there. Where you should find religion, where you should find worship, where you should find people coming into the house of God worshipping, you have a market. You have what would look like a flea market with tables set up and people exchanging goods and purchasing. This is not what's supposed to happen in the temple of God. It's people bringing in a sacrifice and laying it before God to worship Him. As we think about this, there's different, as has been prayed, there's different parts of the temple. There's the Holy of Holies and there's a place for the priests and there's a place for the Jerusalem, for the Jewish men. And there's the home for the Gentiles, the court of the Gentiles. It's assumed that it's in the court of the Gentiles that this market is taking place. Now, people travel from all over. And so there were typically markets set up. outside of the temple, so people wouldn't have to bring their sacrifice and their offering. They could purchase it there. The problem here is they put it inside the temple, which is meant for worship. It's probable that where this is taking place is the court of the Gentiles. And I think this is why we see the judgment of Christ here, because Israel's mission and purpose was to be a light to the world. Israel was supposed to be a place where proper order and worship was happening so that the nations would come and they would see the one true God through the people. And what they would see in the one area of the temple that they could come into was not worship. They made it a market, the one place the Gentiles could come into and wanting to see what is this worship? Who is this God you're worshiping? They would see that it's everyday life business as usual. This is why Christ beats them out of the temple. Now, there's an application here for us. The mission is first and foremost. defined by God and who he is. Our mission as a church must be defined by who God is and what he's called us to do. We're called to glorify him. We're called to do all things in an orderly way that glorifies him. When we're thinking of how we structure what we do together as a congregation, the first thing we have to ask, who is God and how does he call us to worship him? They have been too practical here. They thought, well, we'll just make it easy. We'll just bring the market right into the court of the Gentiles. One of the questions I've wrestled with is, if the Gentiles were to come to Israel to see God, the world is supposed to come to the church and see God. If a non-Christian, if you're not a Christian, we hope that when you come into this building, when we're worshiping together, you will truly see something about who God is. You will hear about God. Church, we should expect people to see and hear what God is really like. We should be unique. There's something different about us. As I wrestle with this, what are some of the things that we should long for people to see as we gather? First, a united body that should be different. A united body that should be different. As we look around, we should see that there's people from different walks of life, different backgrounds, different ages, and we should be different. But we're all united in the one truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We're all united in what he has said under his headship. We should be a body united on truth with conviction. We should all be standing together in the one truth of the gospel, the one revelation of God. Just be a body that worships. A body that that has zeal for the glory of God, a body that longs for things that they wouldn't understand, a body that had a zeal for things, not of this world, but things that we are still longing for. Let's get back to our story. Jesus actions, they are, well, they're fairly extreme. He takes a whip of cords and drives out those selling sheep and oxen. He pours out the coins of the money changers. He verbally rebukes those selling the pigeons. Now, this is quite a scene. This would be a great disruption of what is assumed would have been the normal expectation of the temple that day. He actually beats some of them out of the temple. This is harsh. This is judgmental. What we see here is a corrupt Israel who had gotten too comfortable worshiping God and Jesus coming and making judgment. Now, if we're honest with ourselves, we really don't prefer the judging Jesus. We love, we like Jesus who says, judge not. But if you look through scripture, Jesus makes tremendously strong judgments. He is a just judge. He expects his people to act with righteousness, to live according to his word, and his judgments are just. This reminds me of C.S. Lewis and what he said about Jesus or Adeline. He's not a tame lion. He comes in expecting righteousness. We need to be careful in how we seek to worship God as if it's a comfortable thing. As you come here, if you're a Christian, as you come here, what did you come expecting? Because what I long for in Jefferson Park Baptist Church, what we should be longing for is that worship would actually be uncomfortable. Not that we're going to take the cushions off the pews. I mean, the spiritual discomfort that twists our heart. As the Holy Spirit uses His Word, as the Holy Spirit uses songs, as the Holy Spirit uses one another, that we actually feel undone. Our sin is so revealed that it's uncomfortable and we can only find true comfort in the power of Christ to let us know we are truly forgiven in Him. To long for discomfort in worship is a longing that I think God desires for us to feel undone so that we find the comfort and confidence only in Christ. We can be like Israel, we can be too expectant on comfort in worship when we really should be praying for God to make us undone, to make us uncomfortable so we seek out Christ. Now, verse 16, it introduces the first words of Jesus. We see lots of actions, but now we see the first words take these things away. Do not make my father's house a house of trade. Remove these things. First, things had to be gone. Get rid of this sin. Get rid of what you have made the house of God. Get rid of the market. It doesn't belong here. Notice also, he refers to God as father. Now, that would be fairly radical. We'll see in chapter five of John, this is a radical claim. The Jews sought to stone him in chapter five for calling God his father, because what Jesus is saying there is I am equal with God. I am his son. He refers to God as father. John's point isn't that this would be blasphemous unless he truly is his son. Of course he is. So it's not blasphemous. John's point is something else. Here he says it's his father's house. His father's house is meant for worship. They have corrupted it. That's what we do. We're sinners. God is the one who gives us good gifts and our desires always turn them and twist them and corrupt them. Verse 17. John, the evangelist, who I think is present, he's the unnamed disciple at this point. He actually gives a personal comment here. He's able to recognize his disciples. Remember that it was written zeal for your house will consume me. So quote from the Psalms and the disciples are recognizing what Scripture has said about the one to come. Jesus is fulfilling that. He has a zeal for the house of God. He has a zeal for the glory of God. He is single minded focus on the thing that matters most. Jesus has the perfect man, the man without sin. He has his affections properly ordered. He knows the most important thing is the glory of God and the love of God. He has properly prioritized what is most important, and that is God's worship. Verse 18, the tension continues to build. He is called a great scene with his pushing them out and turning over the coins and the tables. He's declared to them, how have you made my father's house a house of trade? Get these things out of here. The Jews say to him, what sign do you show us for doing these things? What sign do you show us? Now that John is quoting this here, I think to help us get to the main point, what the Jews are asking, can you demonstrate and prove that you have the authority over the temple to do what you've just done? You need to you need to come and you have a warrant. I need to see some paperwork. How is it that you can come in and make such a mess of what we've been doing here? What gives you the right? The main point is that Jesus has the authority. They're wanting to know what warrants you to come here. Now, in asking for a sign to do such things, I think there's some irony here in John. First, we just saw the first sign in John's Gospel. We just saw the wedding at Cana, which John clearly says this is the first of many signs. And here, the Jews are asking for a son. John is building up the notion that we need sons. But I think the irony is actually in the fact that by cleansing the temple, Jesus just gave them the son. By cleansing the temple, he's showing them he is the one to come to truly lead Israel in worship. They're missing the point. Something we background is just just like the the wedding at Cana. John's readers would have known that the bridegroom was responsible for all the wine, and so when Jesus provides the wine, he's demonstrating I'm the true bridegroom. The priests, their most important role, their most important responsibility was to guard the temple of God. The most important thing a priest has to do is to guard the worship of God, to lead people into proper worship and to protect that worship. We see here the priests have failed. They're not protecting the holy places of God. They're not protecting Israel's worship. They've let it become corrupted. They may even be leaning in the corruption. Jesus coming in here as the true priest. He is the priest who protects the worship of God in God's most holy place. He is the one that comes in where they have failed and he has executed proper judgment to lead people in proper worship. He really puts himself in the place of a priest. He's guarding the temple. He's cleansing it from the corruption. He's leading the people in true worship. Now this is pointing us to the authority of Jesus Christ. He alone can lead people in true and absolute worship. He is the Son of God who came down to save the sinners. He is the Son of God who came down and took upon flesh to become like us in every way so that He would die for us. Everything that had been happening in the temple up to Christ, it was all foreshadowing anyway. The Lamb, year after year after year, was in anticipation of a true and final forgiveness when Christ, the Lamb of God, lays down His life. It makes real atonement. It really satisfies the wrath of God. He alone is able to truly lead His people in worship because He alone can forgive sins. Let's look at verse 19. What sign do you show us? And Jesus answers them. He gives them a chance. You destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. They're wanting something else. They're wanting a new sign. Jesus tells them you destroy this temple in three days. I will raise it up. Now face value. He's putting the pressure on them. Notice it's a you destroy. I realize some translations that simply have destroyed, but it's a second person command here. You do this, you destroy it and I will raise it up. The pressure is on them. Are they really going to at face value go in and try to destroy this temple building and see if he can raise it up? The power he's referring to is even greater than tearing down and building a new building, a new temple. Verse 20, the Jews and said it has taken 46 years to build this temple and will you raise it up in three days? They demonstrate and their lack of knowledge, they demonstrate a darkness here, because while Jesus is standing in the temple and he says destroy this temple, he's not referring to this building. The reader should already know this. Because in John 1, 14, John has said the word became flesh. Really, that translation could be the word tabernacled. The word has already been declared. Jesus Christ has already been declared to be the true place of worship, to be the tent that has been pitched for the worship of God. They demonstrate that they're living in darkness because they don't get it. They're talking about a temple that has been built with stones. He is talking about the temple, his body, as we see later. And what we have here is a disappointing ending of the story. The stories in the Bible, they begin with a problem, they begin with a tension, and they typically end with a resolution. The resolution that should be expected here is that the Jews would recognize that he is referring to his body. that he will die and that he will rise again. But you see him. You see them leave with questions. You see them leaving with doubt rather than faith. Verse 21, John interrupts the story to cut straight to the point, but. John interrupts us, but he was speaking about the temple of his body. When, therefore, he was raised from the dead, his disciples remember that he has said this and they believe the scripture and the word that Jesus has spoken. Again, the reader should already notice that it was the tabernacle that his body that he's referring to, but John makes sure we get the point here. John makes sure that we do not continue to walk in ignorance as these Jews are doing. It's the body of Christ. That he's speaking of. Now, when Jesus is put on trial, they actually accuse him of saying, I will tear down the temple and I will raise it up. But we don't have any record of Jesus saying, I will tear down the temple. It's you tear down the temple, they've twisted his words in the middle of this accusation. We see here Jesus prophetically already saying you will destroy this temple. And I will raise it up again. You see, that temple was torn, that body was torn when Jesus was falsely accused. When he was then beaten with a whip of cords, his back turned into just shreds of meat because he was beaten so badly. He was then nailed to the cross so that that beaten back would rub against the splintery wood of the cross. Nailed there with a crown of thorns. And the most physical pain he suffered was sitting there and he has to continue to pull himself up. That's the pain of the cross. Because they can't breathe when they're prostrated like this. So he has to continue to push himself up. He was beaten. He was torn. They sought to destroy him. Let me make a point very clear. They did not have the authority to kill God unless God gave it to them. Jesus Christ is God who became flesh. They could do all the physical damage they possibly wanted, and they could not kill him unless he let them. And he let them because he knew of the greater benefit that it must give to us, and that is how we are saved. Now, how is it that Jesus' body is referred to as a temple? I really want to give a big picture of all the things that John has presented to us thus far. John the Baptist declares, behold, the Lamb of God. Jesus comes in as the priest and he cleanses up the temple as if the priest and then he declares. Destroy this temple, referring to his body, we have the whole sacrificial system here, don't we? Jesus, the lamb, Jesus, the priest, Jesus, the temple. While those were all three different things from the old covenant to bring about a symbol and a representation of what would come, we see that salvation is perfected in one person alone who is together the priest. The lamb and the temple, he is the lamb because he alone can truly take away the sins of man. We talked about the physical brutality that he suffered. Everything physical was nothing compared to the spiritual pain he suffered. When Jesus was saying, let this cup be taken from me, let this cup pass from me, he is not worried about the physical pain. He's looking ahead when he would be separated from the love of God, the son being separated from the father, the father looking on the son as if a sinner and pouring out his wrath. on him for our sins. He's the Lamb of God because he dies in our place, taking our sin upon himself so that we can be counted free and forgiven if we believe in him. Jesus is a true priest. He alone can lead us in true worship. He alone is the one who's able to go into the presence of the Father with the perfect sacrifice and make appeal to us. No, this one is mine. I died for their sin. They're now counted free. They're counted forgiven. They are a child with me. And he is the true temple. It's only in his name that we can stand before God. It's actually now in his name that we can go into God's presence and see his glory, see his face, experience his love routinely so that our confidence in God In Christ, it has worked for us, grows more and more. What are we called to do? Notice here in verse 22, when therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this and they believe. We get to live on this side of the resurrection. We get to look back and see this event and we get to look back and know that Jesus is referring to his death on the cross and his resurrection and what we are called to do is believe. Now, they say they believe in the scripture and the word that Jesus has spoken. The scripture was Psalm 69. The word that Jesus has spoken is that this is my father's house. Get rid of all of this. The Word of God and the Word of Christ are one and the same. This is one story. I reference the Old Covenant and the New Covenant because there is a major change that takes place between the two. But it's because Christ is the authority to make that change. But it's one story and our belief is based upon what God has said. Our faith is in the one message that God has sought to save sinners. That's what the entire Bible is all about. He created us. We rebelled. He continues to pursue us. He continues to love us to the point of sending his son to die for us. Now, verse 23 and 25, this is an interesting way to end this particular section. Now, when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. Again, we can see the importance of signs, miracles that pointed to who he was. But Jesus, on his part, did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man. Now, the words here, for many believed and Jesus did not entrust himself, that's actually the same word for faith or commitment, but it does have a different meaning here. I believe what he's saying is that many had a fickle faith. Many saw the signs and thought, wow, who is this man? Let's make him king so the kingdom comes in. But Jesus knew how fickle they were. He knew that those one day would praise him would end up saying crucify him. He knew that they would waver because he knows what's in man. He knows we're weak. He knows we're sinful. He knows that we love this world. Let's look to some application points from our story as we conclude. First, Jesus is our confidence. Our confidence must be in him. He has the authority to declare we are forgiven. He has the authority to declare we are children of God. We must trust what he says about us. Over against the guilt we sometimes experience. Yes, the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin, but what must first and foremost be our confidence is who Christ is, what he has done and what he says about us. Our world, we should be growing less and less confidence about things in this world. Peace is diminishing. The world is in chaos. There's wars and rumors of wars and there always will be. We can see from the markets crashing and the markets that will crash prosperity, there should be no more confidence in this world. We continue to long after things other than Christ to give us our sure foundation, our sure position. Christ alone is our confidence. What he has secured for us, no one can take away. As we experience discomfort, we must seek comfort and peace in Christ. Secondly, Jesus is our model. He must first be our savior, but then our model. If we're Christians, the zeal that he has for his father's house is a model and an example for us. What is our most primary desire in life? What are we longing for the most? Is it more money? Is it more comfort? Is it more success? Is it more friends? Whatever that is, it's a false confidence. Our greatest zeal should not be for our glory, but for Christ, for who he is and what he's done for us. As a body together, this must be our greatest desire, our zeal must be that we are united together for Christ. Secondly, Jesus calls us to be the place of true worship. Jesus calls us to be the place of true worship here, the word of Christ, as Paul wrote in first Corinthians six, 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 are bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. Friends, we are the temple of God. The Holy Spirit resides in us as Christ cleansed that temple. He comes into our corrupt life and he begins cleansing it to get rid of the gross sin. How can we who've been purchased by the blood of Christ to be pure, to be worshipers of God, connect ourself as if to a prostitute by pursuing sexual sin is what Paul's going after. How can we pursue sin when we have been purchased and bought and purified? to worship God. We must pursue purity and worship and not sin. Our next application has been prayed that Jesus calls a church through the place of worship. This is where we should be worshiping together. God calls Christians to gather together to worship. Now, oftentimes I wrestle with attacks. I want to ask, how could God correct us here? How does this word correct us? Because as sinners, we always need correcting. And I sort of ask myself, if Jesus walks in the door, where is he going to go after us? And I have to say, as I wrestle with this and I pray earnestly, where would God correct us? I kept being overwhelmed by how blessed we are. I kept being overwhelmed by the spirit of unity that God has blessed the church with. I kept being overwhelmed by how we long to gather to know God's word and to love one another, to exalt Christ and to go to the outer ends of the earth and to our neighbors to share the gospel. This is a blessed body and we cannot take that for granted. We need to protect these things. We protect them by guarding our own sinful hearts from wanting to corrupt them. Wanting to do something different, wanting something more. We must continue to grow in his love for our word, for his word. We must intentionally submit to it together. We must continue to grow in our love for Christ together. We must continue to grow in our love for another. So I want to commend you and encourage you and challenge you not to take this for granted what God has been doing, but to long for more of it. Finally, Jesus calls us to a mature faith. Not a fickle faith, a mature faith. One where we trust him, one where we place our confidence in him, one where we know that what he says about us is all we need to know, that we are justified, we've been declared children of God, forgiven. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you for your Word. That even while we were seeking to rebel against you, while we were hating you with the way we were living as sinners, you sought to save us to make us worshipers. You, being the great delight that should be in our hearts. You being the only one who can truly satisfy what we are longing for You protected us from our own foolishness. You redeemed us and rescued us from our own destructive ways. We thank you, Father, for sending your son to forgive us and to give us a new standing before you. We thank you for the Holy Spirit that indwells us to purify us. May you now help us. To be temples and gather together as a temple that truly glorifies you. May that begin with a clear confidence in who you are, what you have done, and what you have said about us. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.