Divine Entry

Mark 11

There is such a conflict going on when Jesus presents Himself to enter the heart of man.

Will I continue in the ways I have always known – or will I allow a new and refreshing way of life to begin?

Why the turmoil as Jesus enters Jerusalem on the Sunday prior to the Passover, the grand celebration of God rescuing the Jewish people from their slavery in Egypt? How had God rescued His people from Egypt? Strangely enough, it had been by the sacrifice of a perfect lamb by each household, and by the application of the blood of that slaughtered lamb to the doorposts and lentil of each house that chose to follow God’s instruction.

How did that work? Well, all we can say for sure is it worked by faith in God’s Word. For every house marked with blood was “passed over” by God’s death angel. In every house that was not so-marked the death of the first-born in that household took place. This provided the final impetus for the pharaoh to expel the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt, and into freedom – eventually resulting in their entering the Promised Land.

The same pattern is repeated every time Jesus, The Lamb of God, approaches the heart of man seeking Divine Entry. What had been collective in type is individual in acceptance. Even in the typology employed in God’s Passover, it was the individual heart being impacted rather than a nation. That so many individual hearts were impacted to obedience brought about the creation of the nation of God’s people.

It is the same with the church of God. We look at the church and we see buildings and religious practice, and we are inclined to think of the collective rather than the individual. But Jesus has taught us the temple of God resides in the heart of man – and in truth it has always been this way. The question is: What will you allow God to do in you? How much of yourself will you allow God to possess?

This is the picture played out for us by Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, just four days prior to the very Passover upon which He will be offered as a sacrifice for our sins. Will you apply His blood to the doorposts of your heart that death may pass over? Will you allow His Divine Entry?

-Pastor Bill