When Jesus died on the cross, the gospel of Matthew says, “At that
moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom”
(27:51). This curtain was what divided the Most Holy Place from the
rest of the Temple. It was originally designed by God to be the
shielding curtain of the ark of the covenant, to protect the priests
entering into the temple from the divine glory of God dwelling over
the ark.

But the ark had been missing ever since the first Temple in Jerusalem
was destroyed. So this room was empty when Jesus died. Why then did
the curtain have to tear? What was the big deal?

Bible scholars have pointed to the tearing of the curtain as symbolic
of the new covenant in Jesus Christ; that what used to be off-limits
in the Old Testament was now given free access to all believers in
Jesus. And scholars point to this text in Hebrews: “Let us then
approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive
mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (4:16). Our
focus is no longer on a Temple on earth, but on the Sanctuary in
Heaven, where Jesus has gone before us as our High Priest.

All worship and prayer in ancient Israel, while focused on the God who
is King in Heaven, was thought to be channeled through the Temple.
This is why Daniel the prophet continued to pray towards Jerusalem
even after the Temple had been destroyed in the 6th century BCE
(Daniel 6:10). Evidently the ark of the covenant had been lost or
hidden when the destruction happened, and it was never recovered. The
Temple was rebuilt, but there is no record of the ark being moved back
into it. Yet the priests continued the rituals and the people
continued to worship towards the Temple.

Maybe, just maybe, when the curtain tore, God was revealing the
emptiness of the Temple. Instead of inviting people into the Most
Holy Place, God was showing there was nothing holy about it without
His presence filling it.

His Son Jesus, sent to heal the sick, cast out the demons, and save
from sin was nailed to the cross as a base criminal, receiving an
execution far less humane than what modern dictators today receive for
international war crimes. The Bible says that the religious leaders
that condemned Jesus wanted Him to die in time to celebrate the
Passover (John 19:31). These actions are so uncharacteristic of the
actual legacy the rabbinical Jews left the world in the first several
centuries of the Common Era. It seems that both Jews and Christians
alike recognized how empty the Temple had become when Jesus hung upon
the cross.

I have felt how empty my own heart is in worshiping God. There are
times that God has torn the veil away and revealed the lack of His
Spirit in my heart. I think this is exactly what God desires when we
look at Jesus on the cross. This is what God is really like: He dies
for you, He comes back to life for you, He brings you back to life.
We just need Him to tear the curtain down and let the secret out: we
are empty. We need to be filled once again with Him. Let Jesus, who
walked out of the tomb, walk into your Most Holy Place.

This is what the Living Ark series is all about. Take a listen to the
first episode, “On the Move.” Track with the series over the next
several weeks. And let God tear the curtain in two.

Pastor Adam

The Bible poses the question to us, “Are not all angels ministering
spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation” (Hebrews
1:14)? The word “serve” here is the same one the apostles use in Acts
6:2 when they are dealing with a division in the church between
Grecian Jews and Hebraic Jews. The Greeks were complaining that their
widows weren’t receiving help with food like the Hebrew widows were.
In response, the apostles said, “It would not be right for us to
neglect the ministry of the word to wait on tables.”

Because of the way it is phrased in the NIV, I used to think the
apostles were belittling this act of service. But this is a
colloquial way of expressing the literal words: “to serve meals.”
Still, are the apostles saying that they are too important to deal
with piddly little matters of food service to widows? Evidently not,
according to what they say in verse 3: “Choose seven men from among
you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn
this responsibility over to them.”

Why would waiting on tables require being filled with the Spirit and
wisdom? Because the issue wasn’t food service; it was prejudice in
the church. There were sensitive issues to deal with here and people
were angry. They weren’t seeing eye to eye, but were looking at
family trees and entitlements. “I have more of a right to this than
you do!” Men of spiritual wisdom were needed to serve these people.

And then the apostles say, “We will give our attention to prayer and
the ministry of the word” (verse 4). The word “ministry” here is the
same word for service that is used in the expression, “wait on
tables.” The apostles weren’t saying that serving food wasn’t an
important act of service, but that they were serving food of a
different kind.

The Bible says, “There are different kinds of service, but the same
Lord” (1 Corinthians 12:5). Each of us are called to a ministry, to
serve others’ needs in different ways. Do you know what your serving
ministry is? Does it serve people’s needs or does it bring you
accolades and honor?

Paul tells Timothy, whose name means “One who honors God,” to
“discharge all the duties of your ministry.” Literally translated,
he’s saying, “Fully accomplish your service.” You want to honor God?
Throw yourself wholeheartedly into the service ministry that God has
designed for you. This, among other instructions that Paul gave to
Timothy, is what the Living with Honor series is about. Listen to the
podcast or stream it now to hear more about ways to honor God in your
life today.

It doesn’t matter who you are or what role you play, whether you are
high-profile or low-profile, wealthy or meager in resources; God has
designed for you a ministry of serving other people’s needs. After
all, every single angel in heaven is a ministering spirit, serving us
humans here on earth. Are we better than angels? No, and even the
Lord of angels and all else in creation became our servant as well.
How could we not honor Him by serving with everything we’ve got?

Happy listening . . . Pastor Adam

In the Resurrection series we have been counting off the days to
Pentecost, fifty days after Passover and the beginning of the Feast of
Weeks. Luke records in the Acts of the Apostles that on Pentecost,
the Holy Spirit came upon all the disciples at Jerusalem and filled
them. We usually teach that unless we experience this kind of filling
by the Holy Spirit, then we aren’t much good spiritually or effective
in ministry.

That’s why I find what happens in the first chapter of Acts so
compelling. Waiting for Pentecost to arrive and the Holy Spirit to
come, Luke reports, “They all joined together constantly in prayer,
along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his
brothers” (Acts 1:14). The next verse says there were even more
disciples than these—120 of them, in fact—during this ten day period.
I like how the New American Standard renders this verse more
literally: “These all with one mind were continually devoting
themselves to prayer . . .”

Question: How many times have you had such a powerful experience in
communal prayer? Praying among and along with other believers, you
had such a sense of one-mindedness, a single powerful focus that
united you, and you kept doing it, without you even being aware of the
hours slipping past. Isn’t that the kind of prayer experience you
dream about, strive for, and plead with God for every time you get
together as a community, as a family, for worship?

So how can it be that the Holy Spirit has come definitively at that
first Pentecost after the resurrection, but we do not experience this
continual, ongoing prayer and especially this unity of mind and
spirit? And how is it that those first disciples were able to
experience it even before the Holy Spirit baptized them in flame?

The gospel of John says that on the very first day of the
resurrection, Jesus appeared to His disciples and “He breathed on them
saying, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’” (John 20:22). And after Pentecost,
Luke reveals that the church continued to be filled with the Holy
Spirit after other prayer experiences: “After they prayed, the place
where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the
Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly” (Acts 4:31).

I don’t pretend to know how it all works. But it seems clear that the
Holy Spirit doesn’t limit Himself to that ancient Pentecost day when
it comes to filling us humans. And it seems clear that prayer is part
of the experience. He is compelling us to gather together and pray,
because there is something He wants to do among us, in us, through us.
Not you and me separately, but together.

We are trained by our macroculture to think and act as individuals.
Interestingly, the word idiot in Greek means self, independent of
others. It would be idiotic to try and pursue a strong prayer
connection with God alone. That’s just stating the obvious!

Take a listen to this Sabbath’s session of the Resurrection series. I
hope you receive a blessing. And I encourage you to consider
attending Renew Time to Pray! Tuesday nights. This is one hour of
worship-based prayer, totally different than what you might have
experienced in past prayer meetings. You can find directions right
here on our website. If you’re not able to do that, submit a prayer
request online and participate that way, for starters. We’ll be
praying!

Blessings,
Pastor Adam

I’ve always found Matthew 28:17 interesting: “When they saw Jesus,
they worshiped Him, but some doubted.” Jesus is alive from the dead,
and He has already appeared to the disciples several times while they
were still in Jerusalem. Luke says, “He gave them many convincing
proofs that He was alive” (Acts 1:3). But now that they are back in
Galilee, out of the immediate danger that Jerusalem held for them,
some of the disciples are wrestling with doubt again.

In preparing for this 4th installment of the Resurrection series, I
contemplated what doubts the disciples were entertaining. Perhaps
they were doubting the way forward, or whether things would ever
change on this old planet. Jesus was alive and the tomb was empty,
but the chief priests still ran Jerusalem and the Romans still
dominated the world. What was really that different? This is
amplified by the disciples’ question during that last conversation
before Jesus ascended back to heaven: “Lord, are you at this time
going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” Jesus flatly tells them, “It
is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set . . .”
(Acts 1:6-7).

When confronted with our doubt, Jesus focuses us on His presence and
power. Rather than giving an explanation, Jesus says, “All authority
has been given to Me . . . I am with you always, even to the end of
the age” (Matthew 28:18, 20).

Looking into this word for doubt a little closer, I found that it only
appears one other time in the Bible, in Matthew 14:31. It is the
story of Jesus walking to His disciples while they are out on the lake
in the middle of the night, a huge storm threatening to sink the boat.
First thinking that they were seeing some apparition of doom, the
disciples cried out in fear. When Jesus called to them and said,
“Courage! It is I,” Peter incomprehensibly says, “If it’s really You,
tell me to come to You on the water.” Jesus beckons Peter; the other
disciples watch in astonishment as he steps over the edge of the
rocking boat.

The Bible says it plainly, “Then Peter got down out of the boat,
walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind,
he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord save me!”

One of my favorite words in the Bible is “immediately.” Jesus wasted
no time in grabbing Peter’s hand and lifting him back up again. Then
Jesus uses our word for doubt: “You of little faith, why did you
doubt?”

The disciples didn’t understand why things weren’t changing in the
world the way they thought would happen. I definitely don’t
understand some of the developments in my life and the world around
me. There is plenty of opportunity for doubt as we worship the Jesus
who can walk on water and step out of the tomb. But in the midst of
it all, what are we going to do?

Jesus focuses us on mission. He says, “Go. To all people. Baptize
them and teach them.” He says, “Courage! It is I.” He promises, “I
will be with you always.”

As we go get involved in other people’s lives, we “come toward Jesus”
just as Peter did on the water. As we see the storms break and the
winds howl in other people’s lives, as we experience the risk and the
costs of investing our lives in other people, we will want to throw
our hands up in the air and sink into doubt. But when we remember
that Jesus has all authority, over the wind and the waves, over death,
and over the mission that He gives us, I pray that we all together
rise up and keep on worshiping Him.

Courage!
Pastor Adam