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So I hope you're excited to be in church. We're in this series talking about the blood of Jesus,

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and we're saying the blood is greater. To overcome anything you're facing today,

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the blood is greater. And so I pray that your faith is filled today, that your heart is growing,

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that you're more excited about what Jesus is doing in your life when you leave this room than when

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you entered it. And I want us to start by opening up the Bible together, and then I'm going to give

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the title of my message today. We're going to spend time around two verses today, Matthew chapter 27

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and verse 50 to 51. Let me just say this. I know we've got some people in the room today,

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and maybe you wouldn't call yourself a Christian. Maybe you've never had a relationship with God.

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You've heard about God, but not walked with Him. And my hope and prayer for you today is that for

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you, you would find something of hope and meaning and life in the words we're going to talk about

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for the next two hours.

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I'm joking.

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It's fine.

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Just 30 minutes.

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You can handle 30.

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You tell them it's two hours and then 30 minutes,

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they can then handle the 30.

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All right.

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Let's read the Bible.

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Matthew 27, verse 50 and 51.

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This is when Jesus is on the cross.

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He says this,

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When Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice,

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he gave up his spirit.

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At that moment, the curtain of the temple,

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I'm reading in my translation, it says here,

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Then behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom,

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and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split.

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The veil, or the curtain, depending on your translation, the Bible says was torn.

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We're going to talk today about the veil being torn.

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So here's the title of the message if you like one.

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The veil is torn, access granted.

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The veil is torn, access granted.

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I want to talk about this concept of a veil for a little bit.

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One of the privileges I get to have as a pastor is occasionally you get the honor and the opportunity to marry a couple.

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And you're stood at the end with the groom waiting for the bride to walk down the aisle.

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You're kind of nudging him to say, now's a good time to cry, you know, all that kind of stuff.

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And occasionally you'll have a bride walking in with a veil over her face.

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And either at the end of the aisle or when she arrives at the front, she will then take the veil away from her face.

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And the veil is a symbol of separation.

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And then the unveiling means I'm ready to step into this covenant of marriage.

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It's a beautiful moment.

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It's an amazing thing.

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And we see this concept of a veil in different parts of the scriptures.

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One that I was thinking about.

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There's this moment, if you read in the first part of the Bible, the Old Testament,

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where Moses goes into a place called the tent of meeting.

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He's meeting with God.

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And when he meets with God, God's presence in his glory is so magnificent and overwhelming.

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The Bible says that Moses' face starts to shine.

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It has a glow on it that is so amazing, but almost intimidating for the Israelites

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that he goes out once he's met with God he he goes back to the Israelites and the Bible says he he

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shares what he's what God told him to say and then he puts a veil on because the glow the glory of God

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is so overwhelming they're like what's happened to Moses this is an amazing thing to see again

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signifying separation and so what happens when Jesus goes to the cross is profound and powerful

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And I think it has resonance for your life and mine today.

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And I want to help us to, I want to celebrate some good news with you today.

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But in order to do so, I want to teach the Bible a little bit from the Old Testament.

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You guys willing to jump into the Old Testament with me in church today?

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Okay.

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So we've got, in order to understand, we need to take a few steps back.

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In order to understand why this veil was necessary, let's look at how God's presence, His holiness,

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interacted with humanity because God created you and I to have relationship with us I don't know

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if you know that but he wants relationship with humanity that was why he designed and created us

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and so when he first created us the the story of creation is that he created this space called

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Eden and Eden was the first effectively the first temple of God it was designed to create a place

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where heaven and earth could interact, could overlap, and God's presence was there, and Adam and Eve

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were there, and it says they walked together with God in the cool of the day. And so God's presence

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happens, and then sin enters the world, and the humanity is cast out of Eden, and so God has another

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plan. Let's just throw up these slides just to help people to see. We have the Garden of Eden.

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The next step here in the journey of creating a space for God's presence

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was something called the tabernacle.

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This was a space when the Israelites are heading into the wilderness

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that it's basically God's presence on the move.

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They create this box, this beautiful space for God,

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and God helps them to design it.

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And God's presence, His holiness is so powerful, so wonderful,

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His glory is so magnificent, you could not enter or open the tabernacle and keep your life.

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That's how holy God is.

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God even says to Moses, he says, I'm going to shield your face at the tent of meeting

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because you cannot see my face and still live.

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That's how holy God is.

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And so they're required separation.

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And the same thing happens then in the temple.

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King Solomon builds the temple.

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And in the temple, they create separation for God's presence.

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So I just want to show you some of these verses to help us to understand this.

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Exodus 26, verse 31 and 33.

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God is instructing Moses.

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He says,

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You shall make a veil woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread and fine woven linen.

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It shall be woven with an artistic design of cherubim of the angels.

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And you shall hang the veil from the clasps.

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Then you shall bring about the Ark of the Testimony or the Ark of the Covenant in there behind the veil.

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The veil shall be a divider for you between the holy place and the most holy.

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Some translations refer to it as the holy of holies.

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we see it again in the temple in two chronicles says this in chapter three and he made the most

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holy place in the temple and he made the veil of blue purple crimson and fine linen and wove

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cherubim into it so this veil exists because God's presence had to be separate from humanity

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and what would happen in this time is if you wanted to get close to God an offering had to be made

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you had to go to a priest and you say here's the offering the priest was cleansed the priest would

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then go and make this offering on your behalf and so you would have a mediator someone in between

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you and God to connect you to God is everyone with me up to this point and so so but a veil of

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separation had to exist because God's holy presence could not be be close to our sinfulness

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and and but but God loves us so much that that he has a plan what was his plan his plan he did not

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want the veil of separation he wanted to be close to you and I he didn't want to be separate he

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wanted to be intimate with us and so a payment a sacrifice had to be made these are the verses we

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just read from Matthew 27 this is what we celebrate as we get closer to Easter on Easter Sunday and

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frankly throughout the year was that Jesus came and let's just read these verses again from Matthew

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27 Jesus comes Matthew 27 50 and 51 and Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up

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his spirit and then behold the veil of the temple was torn what what's why is this important

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because throughout history up to that point there was a separation from humanity in God's presence

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and in this moment as Jesus breathes his last breath the veil is torn so that we could have

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access to God's presence. So that we could, let me show you what the writer of Hebrews says about

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this. Because I got, sometimes when I'm reading the Bible, I get so excited, I start hitting the

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table. This was one of these weeks as I'm studying for this. This is amazing. When we understand just

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how holy the holy of holies is, that it was so powerful and profound and his presence existed

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there, but no one had access to it. And the writer of Hebrews, only a few decades after Jesus was

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alive on the earth is writing this and understand something through the inspiration of the Holy

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Spirit that is so profound that it changes human history. That's what happens here in Hebrews 10.

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I want you to see it. He says, therefore brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the

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most holy place. Are you kidding me? No one could go to the most holy place. No one could enter the

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most holy place. You and I, we have no right to the holy place. The holy of holies is just too,

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it's too much for us to handle. But we have confidence. Why? By the blood of Jesus.

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That when the blood of Jesus dripped down on that cross and he breathed his last breath,

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the veil was torn. Why, what is the veil though? I want to show you this next verse.

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It says, by a new and living way open for us through the curtain or the veil, that is what?

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His body.

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Hold on a minute.

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So the writer of Hebrews is showing us that the veil was actually just a prophetic picture of Jesus.

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And the veil, Jesus refers to himself in different ways.

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He says in John 10, that I am the gate and only through me can the sheep come.

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He says in another place, I am the doorway that you must enter through.

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And in the writer of Hebrews here says that he is the curtain or the veil.

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And his body, when his body was torn to pieces by the Romans,

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they thought and the enemy thought that they were destroying him.

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But what he was saying is, no, no, no, I'm the curtain.

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And when you tell me, access is granted.

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That you and I can step into the most holy place through the veil that is Jesus.

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that when we step through the veil that was torn who is Jesus access to the most holy places

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granted I'm not done with this verse you get you got to leave this one up for a little while

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all right that was like that was like the Oscars music we we still got some time

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so since we have a great priest over the house of God let us draw near to God so so we used to

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have to go to a priest in the temple model to get to God. When I only had the temple to get to God

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and offer sacrifices, I had to rely on another. But the Bible says, and even to 2 Timothy,

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Paul writes, he refers to Jesus as our mediator. So he's the great high priest. So we no longer

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need a high priest. We have one. We have one. So you and I can go straight to Jesus to get to the

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most holy place with God. He says, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full

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assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience

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and having our bodies washed with pure water. Wow. So we understand that through this new covenant,

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that what was impossible to access because of the veil who is Jesus,

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the veil being torn, we have access to the most holy place.

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As I consider this week, though, as we go about our day-to-day lives,

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I ask myself the question, and I don't want to seem glib about this,

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but genuinely, I think for some of us in the room,

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and this is not an insult or a critique, it's an observation,

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I'm not sure how many of us care about being in the holy place.

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Because what we actually care about are the things that affect us day to day.

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We care about, maybe it's our finances, maybe it's the relationships we have,

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maybe it's the challenges.

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I'm not sure, because we don't have the context or awareness of what the holy place was,

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I'm not sure that it frames our thinking of why we should care about the most holy place.

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I've been thinking recently a little bit about the glory of God.

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What is it that we get from that most holy place?

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Like, why was the most holy place?

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Why is this a significant thing for you and I?

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And I think it's significant because when we enter through Jesus into this most holy place,

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the presence of God, we access and experience the glory of God.

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And the glory of God, when we are in his, let me define for us the glory of God.

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What is the glory of God?

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It is the manifestation of God's presence.

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Well, I'll say it another way to kind of simplify it further.

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God making his presence known in a tangible way.

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There'll be moments where maybe you've been in a church service and you're praying, you're worshiping,

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and suddenly you just feel overwhelmed by the presence of God.

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And even though your circumstances haven't changed,

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you feel completely different.

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Because God's glory takes hold of you and you go,

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oh, it all makes sense now.

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Because I'm in the most holy place with him.

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And even though the challenges are still challenging,

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he's here.

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It's going to be all right.

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not only okay, I get it now.

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I get the meaning of life.

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I get the purpose that I have.

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The reason I exist, like he's here.

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The challenge with this is that,

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as you would imagine as a pastor,

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I believe in us gathering as a church.

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The Bible even instructs us to do so.

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It says to Christians, don't give up gathering.

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You've got to gather.

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But access to God through church services,

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if that's the only place I find him, that's the temple model.

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That actually, the promise that Jesus gives us is you and me.

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You can have access to my glory.

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Day after day, night after night, I can come and draw near to him.

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And frankly, as a pastor, some of the conversations I have,

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and again, this is not a critique but an observation,

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tells me that most of us spend our lives thinking about the flesh and not his glory.

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that we don't we don't spend our time contemplating the glory of God and so if the veil has been

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torn and let's be clear the veil cannot be stitched back together once the veil was torn it was done

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that we had complete and full access to the the most holy place and to the glory of God so why is

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it for you and I that many of us don't enter that place very often. Maybe once a year we might be

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tempted to enter the most holy place but why is it that we don't spend our time thinking about and

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contemplating the glory of God? I've got an answer it might not be the right one but I think it may

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be one for us to reflect on today. I think for some of us, much like Moses, even though

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we understand that the veil has been torn by Jesus, his body, you and I sometimes still wear a veil

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ourselves, a veil of separation. And I felt God show me what for some of us, the veil of separation

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that we are wearing today is called.

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And I think the veil of separation,

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if we bring it on the screens,

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is called religion.

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A veil of separation,

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maybe I could be tempted to call

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the veil of separation a mask.

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That I come in to church on a Sunday morning

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and I wear my mask,

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my veil of separation.

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And so I try and draw near to God

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and even though his veil has been torn,

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I'm still wearing my own.

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And so the separation is still in place

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not because of his veil, but because of mine.

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What is religion?

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Some of you, if you're new to church,

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you may say, I thought we were religious.

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You're confusing me now.

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The way that I would define it for you

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and you may have heard before

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if you've been around our church

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or other similar church,

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is that we believe that we have a relationship with God

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and we define the context of our faith relationally,

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whereas legalism or religion is more defined by the rules and the duties

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and the things I have to do in order to get to God.

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And when I embrace a faith that says I need to do things to get to God,

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what I'm saying is, or what I'm perceiving is,

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that the veil in fact has not been torn.

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the veil the access I have to the most holy place is not available until I do certain things

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let me help try and maybe put words to things that we might say if we're wearing the veil of

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religion we might say something like I've done too many bad things

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how many times have I heard people say let me sort myself out and then I'll get back to church

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let me clean myself up and then I'll get back to church assuming that the veil is not torn

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the veil is intact and we think we need to offer sacrifices ourselves to get to God or simply

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that we're still wearing the veil.

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We might say things like, I could never change.

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That's just who I am.

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Perhaps I might say about the grace of God

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or the idea of moving on from my past,

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I don't deserve it.

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I don't deserve to move on.

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I've done these things and a sacrifice needs to be made.

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My own mental health, my own peace,

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my own intimacy with God,

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something has to be sacrificed for what I've done.

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I don't deserve it.

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And the answer is, of course you don't deserve it.

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Of course you don't deserve grace.

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And a sacrifice has already been made.

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His body was torn in pieces.

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He was whipped and his flesh was torn off of him.

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He was crucified in the most horrendous of ways.

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Yes, the sacrifice had to be made and it has been made.

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The veil has been torn.

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access granted but the question i have first today friends is this are you still wearing your veil

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do you walk into church or around life and think that you need to do things to gain god's approval

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oftentimes religion will not just try and get us to gain god's approval but man's approval as well

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we'll come in and we'll see a pastor and we'll try and act better around our pastor as if

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i need approval from man we we i've seen this real going around uh from time to time on social media

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it's this one where it's like when your pastor starts following you on social media and then

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you start like doing all of the let me post about my bible readings let me post about and we do

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these things. Why? Religion. Because we're trying to gain approval from man. We're still wearing the veil.

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Let me say it this way. Religion will tell you that you don't have access when the door is wide open.

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He has opened himself up like the curtain that was torn for you to enter in.

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So that the glory of God could be revealed in you and you could access every promise of heaven.

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I was thinking about how some of us, we don't expect or even perhaps desire to see God's glory at work in our lives.

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And I was thinking about it this way.

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I don't know about you.

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I don't expect to buy a house in Camps Bay in the next couple of months.

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And therefore, I have no desire for one.

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I don't expect to buy a really nice car that I'm driving around in the next couple of months,

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and therefore I have no desire for one.

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I'm focused on the things that I have.

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I don't expect it, and therefore I don't desire it.

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And I think for some of us, when it comes to the glory of God being at work in our lives,

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we don't expect to see God's glory at work, and therefore we are not desiring it.

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And why do we not expect it?

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it was interesting I was coming back to a verse we read in church a couple of weeks ago

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and it had a whole new sense of resonance for me on reflecting on it in the context of what we're

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sharing today it's 2 Corinthians 3 verse 18 and Paul is writing all about Moses and the glory that

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he saw and experienced and he says this at the front of this verse front end of this verse

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and we all who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory.

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We all who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory.

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Let me read into that a little bit.

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Those with veiled faces do not even contemplate the Lord's glory.

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But we with unveiled faces contemplate, consider, think on, desire, expect to experience and live in the reality of God's glory.

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That we have access to it.

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That we have access.

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And therefore, my life is profoundly different if I live in the reality that God's presence is with me.

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fear cannot exist

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in the same place as the glory of God

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anxiety cannot exist

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in the same place as the Lord's glory

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and we who with unveiled faces

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contemplate the Lord's glory

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perhaps today

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it's a moment to reflect

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I want to ask you the question

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are you contemplating the Lord's glory?

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do you consider

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do you desire the glory of God in your life?

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do you hope for His presence

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to feel more tangible in your life

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day to day?

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if not

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perhaps we're still wearing a van

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a veil that separates us.

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Because friends, the veil has been torn.

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It is finished.

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It is done.

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The work is complete.

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There is nothing else that you need to do

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or can possibly do

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to tear apart the veil and gain access.

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It's finished.

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But what can you do

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if you're wearing a veil today

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that says I need to do more.

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I need to gain more access.

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I need to please God in a different kind of way.

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The truth is when the Father looks at you,

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who does he see?

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Jesus.

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The book of Isaiah says that

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all of your good works are like filthy rags.

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You can try and do all the things that you want to do,

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All of the good things, all of the Bible reading,

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all of the devotionals.

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I was listening to some in this week with one of our team

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and we were reflecting on this truth.

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I heard a preacher say,

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said, your greatest challenge

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will not be your devotion or your discipline.

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It's simply gonna be believing the gospel.

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That Jesus's body and his sacrifice

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and the blood that was spilt for you

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is enough to cleanse your conscience of everything.

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And that you cannot do another thing to perfect yourself.

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If that is the goal and the drive of gaining access to God,

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you're in trouble.

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But guess what?

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Out of that place of receiving adoption into the family of God,

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you will then be, let's throw 2 Corinthians 3.18 back up.

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What does it say?

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we all who with unfail faces contemplate the Lord's glory are being transformed

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into His image with ever increasing glory which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit

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so it's not that you stay who you are today but the way of change is by contemplating the Lord's

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glory not by trying to perfect your own humanness. It will never work. You will never gain access

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by your own efforts. You will never be a better wife or husband by your own efforts.

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You might do it temporarily, but it's a sugar rush. It's imperfect. It doesn't work long term.

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But when I contemplate the Lord's glory, I'm transformed into His image.

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When I consider Him, I become more like Him.

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When I allow the glory of the Lord to change me, it's not a temporary measure.

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It's not a temporary fix.

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It's not behavior modification.

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It is transformation by the King of glory.

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And so I wonder if there's anyone in the room today who came in wearing a veil.

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A veil that said, I need to get better.

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I need to do better.

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Maybe I'm even in church because I think I need to be a better dad, a better mom.

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I'm trying to fix my own life.

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Stop it.

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Stop the madness.

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The temple model's gone.

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The veil is torn.

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Jesus won it.

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Now consider Him.

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Pray, seek God, ask Him that the glory would keep filling your life.

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And when you consider His glory and you contemplate His glory,

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you will become more like Him and be transformed into His image.

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I want to pray for us.

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Would you close your eyes with me?

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Let's just take a moment

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Consider Him

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On the cross

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his body broken

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the veil being torn

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so that you could gain access

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do you want another day

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wearing yours

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do you want to wake up tomorrow

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trying to be good enough

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will you take off

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the mask of religion

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today and receive

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his grace

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the veil is torn

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step in

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step in

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Lord, I pray for every person who's been wrestling with a veil of religion.

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Those who have tried to do it in their own strength.

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Those who have tried to fix their own lives,

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fix their own marriages, their own relationships with their children,

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their own work situations,

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their own futures.

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I pray now for masks to drop off,

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for veils to be removed in Jesus' name.

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I pray for the blood of Jesus to come and wash

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and cleanse this church body.

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I pray for a cleansing, a purifying,

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and Lord that we would contemplate your glory

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that we would consider you

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as the veil who was torn

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and Jesus today we say we're entering in

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we want more

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we want more of your glory God

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we want more of your kingdom breaking out in our lives

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Lord we believe and trust

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that when we step in

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that your glory will break out

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and transform us into your image

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Jesus come

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move I pray

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Holy Spirit

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even now I pray

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Lord that your glory

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would be revealed

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in this house

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your glory would be revealed

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in this room Lord

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that we

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your temples

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now living temples

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of the Holy Spirit

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Lord that you would fill us again

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that you would wash over us

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you cleanse us

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Lord

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and make us new

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Father thank you

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that you're doing a work

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even now

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you're doing a work

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Lord you're healing

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you're restoring

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you're breathing life

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into dryness and dead bones, God.

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A resurrection moment is happening even now.

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Holy Spirit, we pray more, more of your glory,

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more of your glory to be revealed in Jesus' name.

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Come, Holy Spirit.

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Come, Spirit of God.