Sunday Best

22 Before we get too far into this,
I need to talk to some of you about the way you’re dressed
this morning. If you think of it, I didn’t
plan it this way, but the first two hymns that we sang this morning
both talked about dress, right? Attire. One spoke of being dressed
in Christ’s righteousness. The other one spoke of the glory
of our dress. I didn’t plan it that way, but
it’s fascinating because I do want to talk about the way that
we dress, the way that we dress for church. When I was little,
they were still calling it Sunday best. There was there were rather
Sunday clothes that we were to wear. We were to keep those clothes
nice. They weren’t play clothes. They
weren’t even school clothes. They were our. Church clothes,
as we called them. And there’s a real truth that
Sunday best is kind of fallen by the wayside and the casual
spirit has invaded the church. And I understand that. And in
a very real sense, I don’t care what kind of clothes you wear
to church. I don’t care, you know, how nice
they are, how expensive they are, because I’ve seen people
decked to the nines whose hearts aren’t right. And I’ve seen people
dressed with the only poor clothes that they own. Whose hearts are
fully in tune with Almighty God and have come truly and sincerely
to worship I gave up a long time ago trying to push the tie thing.
That’s probably the single biggest criticism that I faced in the
ministry. You know where I stand with it.
That basically when those announcers on ESPN on Sunday morning preparing
for a football game who look like they’re dressed to go to
their mother’s funeral, when they quit wearing ties, I might
consider it. It’s a mark for me of decorum.
It is not a standard. It is not an obligation that
I put off on anybody. This is where I am with regards
to attire, but I want to talk about yours. I titled the sermon our Sunday
best. Pointing back to those clothes
that I had hanging in the closet that were untouchable six days
of the week. But I’m not talking about clothes
and you know that. I sincerely don’t care how you
come dressed. I care that you come, but I am
concerned with how you’re dressed. Will
you say you’re confused? You’re mixing us up. I’m not
concerned about your clothes. I’m concerned about how you’re
dressed on the inside. I’m concerned with how you’re
prepared on the inside. And even more importantly, so
is God. God is far more concerned with
your inward attire than your outward adornment. God is far
more concerned with what you’ve done to prepare your heart for
worship than how you’ve done your hair and whether you ironed
your shirt. It’s the button on the bottom
of the iron. I don’t know that the passage
sets out particularly to advocate what I present before you this
morning, but what I observed in this passage is that there
is a focus here on the readiness of some people for worship. glimpses,
as I called them, of the effort that some put towards readiness
for worship. And some people make a big deal
of it. I can remember years ago hearing Dobson teach that Sunday
really begins on Saturday night and he advocated laying everybody’s
clothes out and ironing what needed ironing and preparing
what needed preparing. Some people go through a ritual.
I know that, you know, Barb says I go into the zone sometime between
Saturday morning and Saturday afternoon where whatever she
asks me goes. And this isn’t always the case,
but it goes in one ear and out the other. If you call me and
ask me something, don’t ask for accuracy. I just I I go into
this focused zone and others have their own preparation ritual. For Saturday and for Sunday,
some people spend an inordinate amount of time in the word, an
extra amount of time on Saturdays in order to be prepared for worship.
Some people eat a particular meal, some people fast. Some people spend a great deal
of time in prayer on Sunday morning. Some would find it so burdensome
that they make a quick prayer as they prepare their hearts
for worship. That’s what I want to talk to
you about this morning is how are you prepared for worship?
Are you prepared? If you would, I want to take
you to a passage and I just want you to look for how others prepared. for worship, because that’s what
we’re going to look at this morning. Find ourselves in Luke chapter
22. Enough of the astounded surprise
when you hear that. Luke 22, we’ll be here for about
six months. In Luke 22, we pick up Luke’s
account of the gospel in verse one. where he says, Now the feast
of unleavened bread, which is called the Passover, was approaching.
The chief priests and the scribes were seeking how they might put
him to death, for they were afraid of the people. And Satan entered
into Judas, who was called Iscariot, belonging to the number of the
twelve. And he went away and discussed with the chief priests
and officers how he might betray him to them. They were glad and
agreed to give him money So he consented and began seeking a
good opportunity to betray him to them apart from the crowd. Then came the first day of unleavened
bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed, and Jesus
sent Peter and John saying, go. And prepare the Passover for
us so that we may eat it. They said to him, where do you
want us to prepare it? He said to them, when you have
entered the city, a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of
water. Follow him into the house that
he enters and you shall say to the owner of the house, the teacher
says to you, where is the guest room which I may in which I may
eat the Passover with my disciples? And he will show you a large
furnished upper room. Prepare it there. And they left
and found everything just as he had told them. And they prepared
the Passover. How do you get ready for church? In a very real way, you’ve got
to avoid the same mistakes that some of these in this very passage
make. We’ll talk about them. There
are a number of individuals and people groups mentioned in this
passage. And as I began to look at them, each one of them was
preparing for worship. Each of them in their own way.
There are the chief priests and scribes who were preparing for
worship as they should have been. This, after all, being the Passover,
one of the highest and holiest days of the year, they were preparing. There was Jesus. He, too, was
preparing for worship. There were the people that were
gathered in Jerusalem by the thousands. They were preparing
for worship. There was Satan. Satan, too,
is busy on Sunday mornings. Satan, too, was preparing for
worship, as was Judas. Judas was preparing for worship,
as were the twelve and the officers and the crowd. All of them are
preparing for worship. And we won’t look at every different
people group that I named, but I think we can look at enough
to examine our own worship in light of theirs. J.C. Ryle said of these opening
words of Luke 22, no part of our Lord’s history is so fully
given by all the gospel writers as this. Only two of them describe
the circumstances at Christ’s birth. All four dwell minutely
on Christ’s death. And of the four, no one supplies
us with such a full and interesting details as Luke. If you look at Luke 22, verse
1, it just dumps us right into the middle of the Passion Week,
which just so happened to coincide with a high feast day. It says
in verse 1, Now the feast of the unleavened bread, which is
called the Passover. That isn’t exactly accurate. The nature of the feast and the
Passover is that they were separate and distinct. Numbers 28 says
on the 14th day of the month should be called the Lord’s Passover. We’ll talk more about that in
a moment. On the 15th day of the month should be a feast,
unleavened bread shall be eaten for seven days. They were separate,
and yet they were associated not merely by the calendar, But
also. By what they represented, Leviticus
mentions it as well in the first of the month on the 14th day
of the month at twilight is the Lord’s Passover. Then on the
15th day of the same month, there is the feast of the unleavened
bread. This was a fixed calendar item. No Jew would sit down with
his day timer at the beginning of the year and omit these dates. These were the first ones to
go on the calendar. 2 Chronicles echoes the same thing. Ezra echoes the same thing. These
dates were fixed in the calendar of the Jew. And in order to even
begin to grasp what this day represented, To them, not only
Christmas, but New Year’s and Easter all rolled into one. That’s
how important it was to them. As important as those dates are
to us. If you would, I want to take you back to the establishment
of these high days. I want to take you back to Exodus
chapter 12. In Exodus chapter 12, We have the Passover instituted. This was done in memory of the
preservation from that last plague that had been visited ultimately
upon Egypt. And that if the Israelites had
not practiced what was instituted here, Had they not put the blood
on the doorposts and the lintel, they too would have reaped the
plague that came upon the Egyptians. We have in this passage a memorial,
if you will, a memorial of what God did in preserving and protecting
the Israelites and in the beginning of the exodus. Look, if you would,
at verse one. Now the Lord said to Moses and
Aaron in the land of Egypt, this month shall be the beginning
of months for you. It is the first month of the
year to you. This is where it all started. This is the calendar
year beginning for the Jew. And the Passover feast is immediately
introduced into it. It says, speak to all the congregation
of Israel, saying on the 10th of this month, they are each
one to take a lamb for themselves, according to their father’s households,
a lamb for each household. Now. We pause and tell you that
a household was not to exceed 20 persons, so there was to be
no corners cut here. The house was an average of 10
to 20 people, but no more than 20. And you could gather in neighbors,
you could gather in your extended family, but no more than 20.
This was a major undertaking. And it was meant to not only. underscore the provision that
God had made for them. But it was to be a meal that
the sacrificial meal was to be a reminder to them of God’s grace
and God’s provision. Look, if you would, at verse
four. If the household is too small for a lamb, then he and
his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to
the number of persons in them. According to what each man should
eat, you are to divide the lamb. It was to be a household event
and it was a solemn event because this lamb not only represented
your sin, And the forgiveness for that sin, but as I’ve already
said, it indicated the grace that God had given them on top
of that great forgiveness. Verse five goes on to say, your
lamb shall be an unblemished male, unblemished male, a year
old. You may take it from the sheep
or from the goats. You shall keep it until the 14th
day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the
congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight. Moreover, they shall take some
of the blood and put it in the two doorposts and on the lintel
of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the flesh
that same night roasted with fire. They shall eat it with
unleavened bread and bitter herbs. That leaven, as you know, being
indicative of sin that was pervasive and they were to remove the leaven
from the entirety of the house. As a symbolic indication that
sin itself was removed. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled
at all with water, but rather roasted with fire, both its head
and its legs, along with its entrails. And you shall not leave
any of it until morning, but whatever is left of it until
morning, you shall burn with fire. Now you shall eat it in
this manner, with your loins girded, with your sandals on
your feet, your staff in your hand. You shall eat it in haste.
It is the Lord’s Passover.” He wanted it to be a symbolic, ongoing
celebration. Standing, just as the Israelites
in Egypt would have partaken of this meal. In flight. In preparation
for flight. For I will go through the land
of Egypt on that night, and I will strike down all the firstborn
in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, against all the gods
of Egypt. I will execute judgments. I am
the Lord. The blood shall be assigned for
you in the houses where you live. And when I see the blood, I will
pass over you exactly what we were just saying about. We are
under the blood of the Lamb in a whole new way. But symbolically,
this is exactly what they were talking about. The blood should be assigned
for you on the houses where you live, when I see the blood, I
will pass over you and no plague will befall you to destroy you
when I strike the land of Egypt. Now, this day will be a memorial
to you and you shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord throughout
your generations. You are to celebrate it as a
permanent ordinance. Every Jew would put this down
as the first date in their calendar, the chiefest date, the most important
celebration of the year. And then it was immediately followed
by the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And you can go on to read about
that particular feast. But the 14th of the month was
clearly identified as the Passover. The 15th through the 21st was
clearly identified as the Feast of Unleavened Bread. But it became
very commonplace to speak of both by the mere mention of one. And so the mention of the Passover
would infer the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The mention of the Unleavened
Bread would be an indication of the Passover. This was a great
time of worship. This was one of the highest,
and as I already said, one of the holiest days in all of Israel. It was marked by, as one said,
the blowing of trumpets, many sacrifices, celebrations, and
the suspension of ordinary activities. This was as a Sabbath to the
Jew. No work was to be done. Numbers
1010 says in the day of your gladness, in your appointed feasts
on the first day of your months, you shall blow the trumpets over
burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings.
And they shall be as a reminder of you before your God. I am
the Lord, your God. You know what this was? This
was a worship service. Eight days long, a worship service. Numbers 28 goes on to talk about
it in full. At the beginning of each of your
months, you should present a burnt offering to the Lord. Two bulls,
one ram, seven males, one year old without defect. And on and
on it goes to detail the greatness of these celebrations. Psalm 81 talks about these kinds
of celebrations as well. Psalm 81.3 says this, Blow the
trumpet at the new moon, at the full moon on our feast day, for
it is a statute for Israel, an ordinance of the church of Jacob.
He established it for a testimony in Joseph when throughout the
land of Egypt. The prophets talk about it. The
Scriptures are replete that these feast days were days of high
worship. The bottom line here is that
the Passover and this feast of unleavened bread was a time of
great and solemn worship. Every heart, certainly every
Jewish heart, every convert to Judaism, every heart should have
been putting on their quote unquote Sunday best. Every heart should
have been preparing for worship. Every heart should have been
fully ready. This couldn’t have caught them
by surprise. Because this is the first date that a Jew would
mark in his calendar. But I want to take you to glimpses
this morning. In the efforts of readiness for worship. And
there are many and they are buried. First of all, I want to take
you to the religious elite. The religious elite prepared
for worship by deceitful scheming. Deceitful scheming. Look again
at verse 2, where it records that the chief priests and the
scribes were seeking how they might put him to death, for they
were afraid of the people. The chief priests and the scribes
had one goal. Their hearts were focused They
were locked on. They were tuned in. But it wasn’t
to God and it wasn’t to his worship. A group of people identified
as plotting against the Lord are clearly identified in the
Gospels. Luke says that it was the chief
priests. The first part of that group,
which included the high priest himself. The former high priests. And those that were of the more
noble classes of priests from which the high priests were taken,
not unlike what the Roman Catholic Church does in selecting the
Pope from the school of bishops. In fact, Matthew goes on to tell
us that they met in the palace of Caiaphas. Caiaphas was the
high priest. The highest, most noble position
in all of Judaism. The very high priest himself.
was hosting a meeting for a plot to kill the Lord Jesus. Caiaphas,
that shouldn’t surprise us. Caiaphas was known as a rude,
ruthless, shrewd, manipulative weasel of a man. One called him
an opportunist who did not know the meaning of fairness or justice,
who was bent on having his own way by hook or by crook. No matter
what it took, Caiaphas was going to get his way. Another went on to say that he
did not shrink from shedding innocent blood, what he himself
ardently craved for selfish purposes. He made to look as if it were
the one needful thing for the welfare of the people. In other
words, he was so manipulative he wouldn’t even say that he
wanted it. He would try to make it seem not unlike our modern
politicians. He would try to make it seem
like this is what the people want. He was a coward to boot. It goes on and says, in order
to affect the condemnation of Jesus, who had aroused his envy,
he was going to use devices which were the product of clever calculation
and unprecedented boldness. He was a hypocrite. It was a
phony. He was called the high priest,
but he was a sham. Get this turn, if you would,
where did I leave you? If you’re in Exodus, we need
to rescue you come to John chapter 11. And with another finger, put
it back in Luke 22 so I don’t lose you again. Luke 22 and John
11. We’ll go to John 11 first. Very fascinating verse that is
recorded by John in writing his gospel that really gives you
a picture, a glimpse of Caiaphas’s heart and Caiaphas’s intention
and yet acknowledges that it was all part of the sovereign
plan of God. John chapter eleven, look at
verse forty seven. Which records, therefore, the
chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council and were saying,
what are we doing for this man is performing many signs, you
know, they’re kind of losing control of the political party,
they’re losing control of the people. and the money. If we let him go on like this,
all men will believe in him and the Romans will come and take
away both our palace and our nation. It was power that they
wanted. But one of them, Caiaphas, who
was high priest that year, said to them, you know nothing at
all, nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you
that one man die for the people and that the whole nation not
perish. I don’t think Caiaphas is this
smart. I think this was prophetically given to him and the words as
they rolled off his tongue were true and accurate and with deadly
accuracy. I don’t think Caiaphas is this
smart. I think when Caiaphas uttered those words, he was prophesying
and watch what happens. Now, he did not say this on his
own initiative. But being high priest that year,
he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation and
not for the nation only, but in order that he might also gather
together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.
So from that day on, they planned together to kill him. In other
words, Caiaphas, even as he prophesied, bought into his own prophecy,
even with a willingness to kill the Lord Jesus. But that’s only one part of the
group that is mentioned. This religious elite that is
caught up, not in preparing for humble worship of God, but caught
up in deceitful scheming. Second part of the group were
the scribes, the scribes were primarily Pharisees, they were
the scholars, they were the lawyers, if you will, not lawyers, as
we understand them in our modern day, but students of the law
of God. Those that would study and interpret
and teach and preach on the law. There was a third part of that
group. It was the elders. The elders of the people. The
representatives of the people. The very representatives of the
tribes which every city of any significant size offered up. And they maintained elders and
they sent them as representatives. And those three groups The high priests, the scribes
and the elders of the people formed what was known as the
Sanhedrin. This was a very official meeting.
Sometimes we talk about something, you know, not being able to take
place without an active Congress, that’s about what this was. This
had everybody in the room that needed to be there in order to
affect real change, in order for something to finally happen. And it says they were seeking
to kill him. The form of that verb indicating
continuous effort. They started and they would not
stop. They were not going to stop until they had finished
the job. They were seeking to kill Jesus. It’s an interesting word that
is used almost exclusively by Luke. It just means to slay,
to utterly remove. They wanted Jesus out of the
way. And they had determined in their collective heart what
they wanted to do, what they were now deliberating was how.
How are we going to pull this off? Remember, they had already
sought to throw him off a cliff. They had already cooked up other
potential methods, and now all they’re looking for is how not
only with regard to method, but how with regard to how to pull
it off with secrecy, because that was crucial. Listen, just
briefly, as I course through the Gospels, as you hear their
heart intention, this is nothing new. This is an impulsive. This isn’t second degree murder.
This is first degree murder that they’ve been plotting since almost
their first meeting with the Lord. Mark 3, six, the Pharisees
went out and immediately began conspiring with the Herodians
against him, how they might destroy him. Mark 11, 18, the chief priests
and the scribes heard this and they began seeking how to destroy
him, for they were afraid of him. And the whole crowd was
astonished at his teaching. Mark 12, seven, but those vine
growers said to one another, this is the heir. Come, let us
kill him and the inheritance will be ours. Jesus telling them
what he knew of their plans. Mark 12, 12. And they were seeking
to seize Him, yet because they feared the people, for they understood
that He spoke this parable against them. And so they left Him and
went away. John 5, 18. For this reason,
therefore, the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because
He was not only breaking the Sabbath, but was calling God
His own Father, making Himself equal to God. John 7, 1. After these things, Jesus was
walking in Galilee for He was unwilling to walk in Judea because
the Jews were seeking to kill Him. This isn’t a plot that cooked
up overnight. This is something that had taken
years and was fomenting and was at the very core of who they
were. They were murderers at heart. John 7.19, 7.25, 8.37,
8.40, 11.53. Even in Luke’s gospel, Luke records
several occasions. Luke 19, 47, he was teaching
daily in the temple. But the chief priests and the
scribes and the leading men among the people were trying to destroy
him and they could not find anything that they might do for all the
people were hanging on to every word that he said. And finally,
in Luke 20, 19, the scribes and the chief priests tried to lay
hands on him that very hour. And they feared the people for
they understood that he spoke this parable against them. This
wasn’t anything new. This isn’t second degree murder,
as I said. This is a long standing plan. Established from the earliest
moments. Of meeting Jesus. But even as you heard some of
those plots, they were constantly in fear of the people. And that’s
true even now. That’s true right here in verse
two, where it says the chief priest and the scribes were seeking
how they might put him to death instead of preparing for worship. For they were afraid of the people.
They were deliberating, they were stuck. They wanted to put
him to death, they really had determined that that was the
best thing to do. But they were stuck because they
were afraid of the people. Mark 14, too, says in the same
context that they had decided that it was not going to be during
the festival. Otherwise, there might be a riot
of the people. As one said, arresting Jesus
was not going to be so straightforward. They might have been able to
count on people like the merchants. Whose trade in the temple courts
had suffered at the hand of Jesus. And there were people in the
Jerusalem mob who could be manipulated. But there were also many pilgrims
from Galilee and the city for the feast. And so the religious elite is
stuck. And they’re frustrated. They
want to kill Jesus, they want to do so without being detected
by the crowd, and therefore they want to do it after the feast,
that’s their determination. And so instead of preparing for
worship, the Jews, the religious elite of that day, were preparing
for murder. And you’ll see quickly where
I’m going with this. I’m not going to suggest this morning
that you’re here all the while plotting murder in your heart.
Only God would know that. But how many of us come with
hearts that are distracted by bitterness? Or how many of us,
very like the religious elite, come here out of a sort of smug
self-righteousness? That we don’t really need to
be here. That’s kind of what they thought. They thought that
they had a free pass. The Passover will take care of
itself. The preparations are kind of
all in order. After all, I’m only the high
priest. And they smugly stood back. and turn their attention
in another direction. How many of us out of self-righteousness? Came here this morning. Thinking
that we don’t really need this, but I’ll go through the motions
I’ve had. Well, plenty of God’s grace already.
I don’t need any more. Ironically, that’s what keeps
people away sometimes, too, doesn’t it? That’s what draws people
aside into thinking that We don’t really need to be at church to
worship. We don’t really need to be with
God’s people. I can do as I please. But for these, it was not only
their smug self-righteousness, which is ultimately what led
to the other, but it was also their murderous intention, the
bitterness of heart, the hatred that they had for Christ. They
were wholly unprepared for the worship of Almighty God. But
there was a second group. There’s a second group that we
want to look at. In preparing for worship and
considering our own preparation for worship, in looking at the
glimpses in the efforts of others in their readiness for worship,
we see not only the religious elite in their deceitful scheming,
But there’s another group that I almost missed. The people. The people. The verse two mentions it, and
the people are mentioned a number of times, the chief priests and
the scribes were seeking how they might put him to death,
but they were afraid of the people, and that’s just how they’re spoken
of in the Gospels. The crowds that had come in for worship
there in Jerusalem, and that’s where they were supposed to come
for this worship. It was a big, high and holy day. They were supposed to be there.
And I almost missed this group, didn’t you? But there they are in the city
for worship, and they’re all preparing. It’s a busy time. If you can imagine the marketplace
is flooded with not only people, but animals for the sacrifices
and all the materials and goods that they had to buy, the unleavened
bread and the hyssop, all of that they had to purchase in
the market squares and then secure a place to celebrate the Passover
feast. I almost missed them, and the
reason I almost missed them, maybe we all did it, we’re thinking
the best of these people. When I read that the religious
elite were afraid of the people, that there might be a riot. You
immediately think of passionate supporters of Christ, right?
You are not going to lay hands on our Lord, right? Isn’t that
what you think? That’s what I thought. That’s
what comes to mind for me, but the truth is that those who passionately
hated him seriously outnumbered those who passionately supported
him. And the sad truth is that those in the middle, the people,
the worshippers were just plain indifferent to the Lord Jesus
Christ. One writer pointed out that there
might be another cause to this potential riot. Listen carefully. The Passover commemorated the
deliverance of the people from Egypt. The people made preparation
for it by clearing out all 11 of the houses. Then they solemnly
slew the lamb and threw the blood on the altar. They took the carcass
home and roasted it for seven days. They ate unleavened bread.
All this meant that there was high excitement among the people.
This was one of the year’s highlights. Devout people would not want
to be distracted from their religious observances. By a public arrest
with all its consequences, you know what he points out? And
I don’t even think he intended to. He points out by my number
two point here. That the people were all about
their dutiful routine. It’s not so much that they wanted
to rise to the occasion and defend the Lord Jesus as much as they
wanted to defend their routine. They wanted to protect their
religious observance, their right, R-I-T-E. That’s the real cause,
I think, for the fear of the riot is that people were so locked
on to their slavish observance of religious duty that they were
indifferent either to humbly turning in faith to the Messiah
or realizing that the true Lamb of God Himself was about to be
slain. They were oblivious. And those
who weren’t oblivious were indifferent. And those who weren’t indifferent.
And we’re so passionately concerned for Christ, we’re so few in number
that that can’t possibly be the fear. That struck the hearts of the
religious elite. They just wanted to be able to
go through the motions of their ritual and remain unruffled by
the goings on of church in the city. The skirmish was none of
their business. That’s what they felt. And how many of us go through
the motion? Get up, we do our hair like we normally do. We
might have even, as men, ironed our shirts. We’ve got the outside
all prepared, but how many of us are just going through the
motion? How many of us just showed up and feel like just showing
up is enough? And how many of us have this? Really crazy thought that it’s
optional to show up. And that it’s OK to go through
the motion in whatever form it takes in our lives. J.C. Ryle hit on it dead on when
he said, how often the very persons who live nearest to the means
of grace are those who neglect them the most? Do you hear what
he says? There are countless scores of
people who just show up and go through the motions. They’re
there, but they’re not really there. J.C. Ryle goes on and says, there
is only too much truth in the old proverb. The nearer the church,
the further from God familiarity with sacred things has an awful
tendency to make people despise them. There are many who from
residence and convenience ought to be the first and foremost
in the worship of God. Yet are always the last. There were the people. They were
there. They were there in Jerusalem
and they were about to celebrate the Passover and could have celebrated
the Passover, the Lamb of God being sacrificed, the greatest
offering that surpassed all others by far. They were there physically. But they were preparing to miss
it. There’s a third group or if you
will, individual. I’m beginning to talk about our
Sunday best and how we should be prepared for worship. These
glimpses and efforts for readiness for worship not only point to
the religious elite and their deceitful scheming, the people
and their dutiful routine, but there’s a third individual that
pops into the picture, not surprisingly. Satan. With his devilish havoc,
he, too, is prepared for worship. Perhaps he heard the town bells
calling for worship. It’s one of the days that one
of the hours of the week, rather, that Satan is the most active.
I’ve heard scores of people tell me about the arguments that they
have on Saturday or on Sunday in preparation for worship. I’ve
heard and good excuses. Mind you, I’ve heard scores and
scores and scores of excuses of what happened and the car
broke down and this happened and flu came and all these other
things. It doesn’t surprise me at all
that Satan is here in this picture. Satan doesn’t want you at church.
Satan doesn’t want you to worship. But what sickens me is that Satan
begins to convince God’s people that it’s okay. It’s an optional
deal. You don’t really need to be there.
And the one that sickens me the most is when family members come
into town. And, oh, I wanted to be a witness
to them. So we went to brunch. You want
to be a witness to them? Tell them you’re going to worship
the Almighty God. Tell them you’re going to be
with God’s people. Come if you would like. But for
this time, I’m going to go worship. Don’t believe the devil’s lie. Satan entered into Judas as Judas,
who we’ll look at next week, was preparing for worship on
his own terms. Satan entered his heart. Satan
was preparing for worship. Satan wanted to be part of this
deal. Satan wanted in on it. Satan wanted to come to church
and he entered into Judas, who is called Iscariot, belonging
to the number of the twelve. And he went away and discussed
with the chief priests and officers how he might betray him to them. John’s gospel offers an interesting
little tidbit, a perspective in the devil’s nefarious activity
in particular. In John 13 to just listen briefly,
it says that during supper, the devil having already put into
the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray him. The devil had his hand in this.
And my question to you in closing this morning, and we’ll pick
up more of this detail next Lord’s Day, do we leave the door open? Do you and I leave the door open
for Satan to hinder or foul our own preparation for worship.
Because it is Satan’s favorite ploy. Satan doesn’t want you
here and he doesn’t want you participating. And if you come,
and if you come in a foul mood, that’s okay with him too. And
if you come, and if you come and just go through the motions,
that will do. But it’s all of the devil. It’s
all of Satan. There are more people yet to
be considered as we look at our own preparation. For worship. There’s Judas. And there’s Jesus. And there are his disciples.
And we’ll take them up next Lord’s Day, let’s examine our hearts. Our merciful God. We come before
you in humility. Acknowledging even as my brother
said, we were as dead men merely perfumed. And father, you took
us. And woke us out of that dead
sleep. And brought us into a vibrant
relationship with you. You saved us. And you called
us not to church, but to a life of worship. Gracious God, examine
our hearts and reveal to us where our own
preparation is faulty. We thank you. We ask your blessing
on the remainder of our day in Jesus name. Amen. you