Beyond the Weekend: Spaces
Where does God meet us? Throughout Scripture, he meets his people in real places—mountains, deserts, seas, and the temple. Each place teaches us something about who he is. Join us for The Places Where God Meets Us, a six-week series exploring how these spaces point forward to Jesus, the one who meets us still.
The Walking Temple
Read: Mark 15:37–39| Listen: Mark 15
With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!” Mark 15:37–39
Mark’s Gospel tells the story of Jesus’s coming as the long-awaited Savior and Son of God. Mark’s purpose is clear from its opening verse: to present Jesus as “the Messiah, the Son of God” (Mark 1:1). Yet the first person in the book to call Jesus the Son of God doesn’t appear until the end—and it’s by a Roman centurion! This soldier watches how Jesus dies and affirms Jesus’s identity as the Son of God. At Jesus’s death, the temple curtain tears in two “from top to bottom,” a sign of God opening the gates of heaven through Jesus’s work on the cross.
Our sin and rebellion separate us from God. Though we were made to dwell with God and enjoy him forever, we have turned away from him through our sin. Ever since God banished Adam and Eve from the garden, the message to humanity has been “access denied” (Genesis 3:23–24). But through the work of Jesus, the message is now “access granted.” We can know and dwell with God through what Jesus accomplished in his death and resurrection. God has made a way for our salvation through Jesus’s victory over sin and death.
TODAY: Jesus died so that we might live. If you have never received his gift of life, make today the day you put your faith in Jesus. If you have, celebrate the goodness of God revealed in Jesus by singing “King of All the Nations” with our worship team.
For more encouragement, listen to the Beyond the Weekend Podcast as the team discusses last weekend’s sermon—find it wherever you listen to podcasts or on YouTube HERE.
