Zeal and Cleansing: A Heart for the Father

March 8, 2026|Zeal and Cleansing: A Heart for the Father|John 2:12-22

Will Davis

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What does true worship actually look like?

Is it possible to be in the right place, doing the right religious things, and still have a heart that is far from God?

In John 2, Jesus walks into the temple during Passover and confronts a kind of worship that looked religious on the outside but was deeply corrupt at the heart.

As we look at this passage this morning, it’s important to remember that this passage does not stand alone. It flows naturally out of what we have already seen. Remember in chapter 1 John has told us in his prologue that the Word has been made flesh and has dwelt among them, that they had seen His glory full of grace and truth. We saw the witness of John the Baptist and Jesus calling His first disciples. Then last week we saw His first sign at the wedding in Cana, turning water into wine. And what we have already seen has been pointing us to something deeper. They are pointing us to the issue of purification from sin and the question of true worship.

Following Jesus is not merely attaching ourselves to a good teacher, or a lifestyle. It is about being cleansed from sin and brought into right worship of God. And what John begins to show us is that the religion of Israel in Jesus’ day had become hollow. The problem was not simply a few bad practices on the surface. The problem ran deeper, it was spiritual apostasy. What was meant to be the worship of the living God had become empty, mechanical, and corrupted. And Jesus comes not only to confront that reality, but to overturn it.

Now John is very intentional in how he tells the story of Jesus’ ministry. Throughout this gospel he repeatedly brings us to the Jewish feasts. And he does that because those feasts were full of meaning. They were shadows that pointed forward to something greater. John uses them to highlight the claims Jesus makes and the fulfillment Jesus brings.

One of the most important of those feasts is the Passover. John will mention it several times throughout his gospel. Passover, of course, goes all the way back to the Exodus and, when God delivered Israel from slavery in Egypt. Every year the people would come to Jerusalem to celebrate that deliverance. The temple stood at the center of it all, because the temple was understood to be the dwelling place of God among His people. It was the place where sacrifices were offered, where sin was dealt with, and where the nation came to worship the Lord.

So when Jesus arrives in Jerusalem during Passover and cleanses the temple, this is no small moment. It is a massive declaration. It is a declaration of His authority. It is also a declaration that a crisis has arrived for the religious system of Israel.

Now some have noticed that the other gospels place a cleansing of the temple at the end of Jesus’ ministry during the final week before the cross, while John records one here at the beginning. There has been plenty of discussion about that. But there is no real difficulty in understanding it. It is entirely reasonable that Jesus cleansed the temple more than once. In fact, it makes perfect sense. At the beginning of His ministry, the Messiah arrives and immediately confronts the corruption of worship. At the end of His ministry, just before the cross, He returns to the temple again to pronounce its final judgment.

The same problem is exposed both times: a religious system that had turned away from the God it claimed to serve.

Before we even get into the details of the text, we need to remember why John writes any of this at all. As we read last week, John himself tells us in John 20:31, “These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

That is the purpose of the whole gospel. John is not randomly collecting stories about Jesus. Every account, every sign, every conversation is selected with purpose. John is showing us who Jesus is. He is showing us that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, the eternal Word who became flesh. And he writes these things so that we would believe in Him and through our faith in Him have life.

Now when we come to this event in the temple, it may not look like a miracle at first glance. We tend to think of miracles as healings, resurrections, or the casting out of demons. But what Jesus does here is no small display of divine authority. In fact, this is a sign of enormous magnitude.

The first sign in Cana was quiet and private. It happened in a small village among family and friends. It revealed Jesus’ glory to His disciples. But what happens here is completely different. This is public. This is explosive. And unlike the quiet sign at Cana, this moment is driven by Jesus’ righteous zeal for His Father’s glory.

Jesus enters the temple courts during the busiest season of the year, when Jerusalem would have been bursting at the seams with people who have gathered for Passover. And what He finds there is not reverent worship but religious commerce. The place that was meant for prayer and devotion had become a marketplace filled with noise, bargaining, animals, and money changing hands.

What we will see is a Jesus who will not stand idly by for the sake of being nice. No, we will see a Jesus that will not tolerate this great iniquity in His Father’s house.

But this is not a new problem for God’s people, it is the same problem the prophets have confronted for centuries. God had already spoken about this through men like Isaiah. In Isaiah 1 the Lord says,

Isaiah 1:11–20 “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. 12  “When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? 13  Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations— I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. 14  Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. 15  When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. 16  Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, 17  learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause. 18  “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. 19  If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; 20  but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

The issue was never that God rejected the sacrificial system that He Himself had instituted. The issue was that the people were going through the motions of religion while their hearts were far from Him. And that is exactly what Jesus confronts here.This moment reveals something crucial about our Lord. The same Jesus who shows compassion to sinners also burns with zeal for the honor of His Father. Psalm 69:9 says, “Zeal for your house will consume me,” and that is exactly what the disciples remember when they see what Jesus does.

The cleansing of the temple shows us that how we worship matters to God. It shows us that God is not pleased by our outward piety, but the condition of our heart. It shows us that the Messiah has authority over the house of God. And even more than that, it begins to point us toward something greater, that the entire system centered around the temple is about to be replaced.

Because we will see this morning Jesus will say something shocking: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” John 2:19. John tells us He was speaking about the temple of His body.

In other words, Jesus is announcing that He Himself is the true temple. He is the place where God and man meet. The sacrifices, the priesthood, the entire structure of temple worship was always pointing forward to Him.

And through His death and resurrection, a new and greater reality of worship will begin. Not tied to a building in Jerusalem, but centered on the risen Christ.

So as we look at this passage this morning, we are not merely seeing an act of righteous anger in the temple courts. We are seeing the Messiah confront false worship, assert His authority over the house of God, and point forward to the cross and the resurrection where true worship would be established. Because worship is not a matter of religious activity, ceremony, or human commerce; it is redeemed sinners coming to the Father in spirit and in truth through Jesus Christ, the true Lamb who alone makes atonement for sin.

This brings us to our first point this morning: Perceiving the Problem.

I. Perceiving the Problem

John 2:12-15 12 After this he went down to Capernaum, with his mother and his brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days. Jesus Cleanses the Temple 13 The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. 15 And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables.

John tells us in verse 12 that after the sign at the wedding in Canna Jesus, His family, and His new disciples travel down to Capernaum. Capernaum is about sixteen miles from Nazareth. Remember that Joseph has most likely died long before these events and Jesus as the oldest Son is the head of His family. So, for them to accompany Him would be a normal way of life. Also, I think it is important for us to remember at this time Jesus’ brothers do not believe in Him as their Messiah, John will address this in chapter 7.

Scripture tells us that they only stayed there a few days before heading down to Jerusalem for the Passover, but Capernaum is a place that Jesus will spend a lot of time at and perform many miracles while He is there, and yet the people will reject Him. Their unbelief is so great that Jesus says in Matthew 11:23 that if He were to perform all the works He does before them that Sodom would have repented. But at this time Jesus only spends a few days there.

Verse 13 tells us why they only stayed a few days in Capernaum as Passover was coming and Jerusalem is close by so this whole group that is with Jesus go into the city. Remember that Passover is a feast of remembrance for the Jews of how God has delivered His people from the hands of Pharoah. 

You remember the story in Exodus 12 when God delivered Israel from Egypt. The final plague was the death of the firstborn, and the only way to escape that judgment was for a lamb to be sacrificed and its blood placed on the doorposts. When the Lord saw the blood, the judgment passed over that house. That Passover meal became a yearly remembrance for Israel, commanded by God in the law. But even then it was pointing forward to something greater. It was a picture of the true Lamb, the Messiah, whose blood would one day be shed to deliver sinners from the judgment of God.

Jesus lived in perfect obedience to the Father and to every command God had given in His Word. He fulfilled the Law completely, moral, ceremonial, and everything God required of His people. So, as He always did, Jesus faithfully came to Jerusalem to keep the Passover.

Now in verse 14 when Jesus arrives at His Father’s temple what does He find? He finds men fleecing God’s people in His own house. This selling of oxen, sheep, pigeons, and the money-changers were not in the area outside of the temple, but inside the temple walls in what is known as the court of the Gentiles. 

What is lost on us here is that Jews from all over were required to come to the temple and traveling with an animal for sacrifice was difficult, even in those days. And even if you brought your own animal it was often rejected so that you would be forced into buying an animal to sacrifice. On top of that the only currency allowed was that which the temple used so the money-changers were there to change out your foreign currency at a terrible rate of something like 10 to 1.

Church think about it this way, what are we called to do when we come to the Lord’s table for the supper? We are called to examine what? The way we sing, give, volunteer, our good works? No, we are called to examine our hearts before the Lord. Why? So, that we don’t take of the supper in an unworthy manner guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. This is what is happening right before Jesus’ eyes and what does He do about it.

We examine our hearts not to earn forgiveness, but to recognize our need for Christ’s grace. Our confidence is not in ourselves, but in the One who cleanses us and makes us holy, so that our worship may be pleasing to Him.

This scene is what Jesus walks into, not a people who gather with broken and contrite hearts who have come to make atonement for their sins. Jesus does not find a people who are being led to worship God with reverence, instead He sees people being led to worship God by buying His favor.  He sees men that are trying to sell the favor of God, and a people willing to try and buy it. And this exposes something deeper than a corrupt marketplace. It exposes the natural condition of the human heart. Left to ourselves, we do not come to God in humble repentance; we try to manage God, bargain with God, and control our relationship with Him through religious activity. When worship becomes a business, God’s glory is replaced with human profit. 

Before we look at these people with snobbery, the American Church at large is this very same picture. Men and now women trying to sell God’s blessings and a people willing and eager to consume it. A church that is not interested in surrendering to the Lordship of Christ to be made a new creation, but a church that wants to just add this magical missing ingredient named Jesus into their lives. 

Their actions scream, Lord, we want your blessing, and we will even pay for it but don’t you dare ask me to keep your commandments and surrender all that I am to you. Don’t you dare expect me to be conformed into your image, you just need to fit into my image of you.

Look at verse 15. Jesus sits down and begins to make a whip. Notice that, He doesn’t pick one up, He doesn’t borrow one, and He doesn’t buy one. He makes His own. This is not a sudden outburst or a loss of control. This is not uncontrolled anger. This is holy authority. The Lord of the temple calmly braids the cords together and then stands up to act.

So we need to get rid of that picture of a weak, timid Jesus. As one commentator put it, among the many things that could rightly be said about Jesus, this passage makes one thing clear, mild is not one of them.

Jesus walks into the temple and sees animals being sold, money being exchanged, and the whole place turned into a marketplace. What was meant to be a place of repentance, reverence, and prayer had become noisy, corrupt, and completely irreverent. Their hearts were no different than the people Isaiah rebuked, going through religious motions while their worship was empty. And nothing stirred the holy anger of Jesus more than the dishonoring of His Father’s name.

And that same concern for pure worship still matters today. While there may no longer be a physical temple, God has made His people the temple in which He dwells. Scripture says that judgment begins at the household of God. Church, this is why when we gather around the Lord’s Table, we are called to examine ourselves. 

We do not come casually or hypocritically, pretending devotion while holding on to sin. Instead, we come humbly, confessing our sin and trusting in Christ alone, because those who belong to Him are spared not from His discipline as a loving Father, but His condemnation as the righteous and holy Judge.

The people expected the Messiah to come and judge the nations. Instead, He comes and confronts them, right in the middle of their worship at Passover. What should have been the highest expression of devotion had become a display of hypocrisy. So in righteous zeal Jesus takes the cords He has braided and drives them out of the temple courts. This was not merely a man causing a disturbance, it was a display of divine authority. In a moment He clears the courts, showing that the Messiah had come to judge false worship and restore the honor of His Father’s house.

The problem has now been exposed: corrupt worship and hardened hearts. But the question now becomes, who has the authority to confront it? And in the next verses Jesus answers that question unmistakably.

II. Proclaiming Authority

John 2:16-17 16 And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” 17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” 

After driving the animals out and overturning the tables, Jesus turns to those selling pigeons and gives a direct command: “Take these things away.” And then He says something even more striking, “do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.”

Now don’t miss what He just claimed there. Jesus doesn’t call it the temple, or even God’s house. He calls it “my Father’s house.” That is a claim of authority. This is not a rabbi offering an opinion about temple practices. This is the Son speaking about His Father’s house. Jesus is acting with the authority of the One who owns the temple.

And that’s what makes this moment so bold. Remember where this is happening. This is Jerusalem during Passover. The city is packed with pilgrims. The temple courts are filled with people, merchants, and religious authorities. Yet Jesus walks into the center of it all and commands them to stop. No hesitation, no permission asked. He speaks as the rightful Lord of the temple.

What we are seeing here is a prophetic act. Like the prophets of the Old Testament who would perform dramatic actions to expose sin and call the people back to God, Jesus publicly confronts the corruption of worship. But this act goes even further than a prophet’s protest. It reveals who He is. Only the Son has the right to cleanse the Father’s house.

John tells us that the disciples later remembered something from Scripture when they saw this happen. “Zeal for your house will consume me.” That comes from Psalm 69:9. It’s a messianic psalm describing the suffering of the righteous servant who is consumed with zeal for the honor of God.

That word zeal means a burning passion. A consuming devotion. Jesus is driven by a deep and unrelenting commitment to the glory of His Father. The corruption of worship was not just a bad system to Him, it was a direct attack on the honor of God. And that stirred a righteous, holy zeal in the heart of Christ.

But there is something else in that verse. It doesn’t just say zeal fills Him. It says zeal consumes Him. In other words, this very zeal for God’s house would eventually lead Him to suffering and death. The same passion for the glory of His Father that drives Him to cleanse the temple will ultimately drive Him to the cross.

So this moment is not just about cleaning up the temple courts. It is about the authority of Christ and the mission of Christ. The Son has come to restore true worship, and that restoration will cost Him His life.

And that raises an important question for us. Who or what actually has authority in our lives? Because every one of us lives under something. Our culture claims authority. Our desires claim authority. Our fears claim authority. But this passage reminds us that Jesus Christ alone has the rightful authority over the worship of God and over the hearts of His people.

The same Lord who cleansed the temple is the Lord who claims our lives. And just as He was zealous for the purity of His Father’s house, He is zealous for the purity of His people. Scripture tells us that we are now the temple of the living God. That means Christ is not indifferent about what fills our hearts. He cares deeply about the holiness of His people and the purity of their worship.

So the question is not whether Jesus has authority. The question is whether we are living in submission to that authority. And that submission is not theoretical; it is practical. Consider these questions:

• Where in your life have you allowed your own desires, fears, or routines to take the place of Christ’s Lordship?

• Are there areas where your worship is more about routine or comfort than love for God?

• Do you live under Christ’s authority in your work, home, relationships, and use of time?

• As a church, do our gatherings, our teaching, and our care for one another reflect the glory of God, or have we allowed culture or convenience to shape them?

  
  

These are not easy questions. But the good news of the gospel is that the same Jesus who exposes false worship also restores hearts. His authority is not only a demand, it is an invitation to life. He does not condemn without mercy. He purifies to draw us into closer fellowship with Himself.

The right response to the Lord of the temple is simple, yet profound: Repent. Submit. Worship.

Repent of ways we have tried to run our own lives or worship in our own way. Submit to the authority of Christ over every area of life. Worship Him with hearts that are fully devoted, lives surrendered, and zeal that honors the glory of God.

The Son of God has come to cleanse, restore, and reign. As His people, let us respond with a zeal that consumes us, not for ourselves, but for the glory of the Father. And yet this display of authority and zeal is not the final word. The temple He cleanses points forward to something greater, as Jesus now reveals a prophetic promise that ultimately points to His death and resurrection.

III. Prophetic Promise Fulfilled

John 2:18-22 18 So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” 19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20 The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” 21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body. 22 When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

Look with me at verses 18–19.“So the Jews said to him, ‘What sign do you show us for doing these things?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’”

After Jesus clears the temple courts, the religious leaders confront Him. They are not interested in repentance, reverence, or right worship of God. They are not interested in asking whether what He said about their corrupt worship might actually be true. Instead, they ask for a sign. In other words, “Who do you think you are to do this?”

And this really makes the issue very clear now. Jesus has just acted with authority in the very center of Jewish worship. He has stepped into the temple courts, territory controlled by the priests and religious leaders, and taken control. He was not a priest. He was not a Levite. He had no official position in their religious system. From their perspective, He had no right to do what He just did.

So they demand proof. “What sign do you show us for doing these things?”

Now it’s important to understand something here. This was not an honest request for evidence. Unbelief is rarely satisfied with evidence. Today this level of unbelief sounds something like, “even if Jesus appeared to me I still wouldn’t believe or follow after Him.”

Anyways, the temple leaders already had and knew the Scriptures. The testimony of John the Baptist was already circulating and they would have heard it and sent people out to investigate what he was doing. Even miracles would soon be happening during this very feast. But unbelief always finds a way to move the goalposts.

And Jesus answers them with a statement that at first sounds mysterious: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

Now of course they immediately misunderstand Him. Verse 20 says, “The Jews then said, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?’”

They are thinking only about the building standing right in front of them. Herod’s temple had already been under construction for forty-six years at that point, and it would continue for decades after that. From their perspective, what Jesus said sounded ridiculous and foolish.

But John tells us in verse 21, “But he was speaking about the temple of his body.” To us it is obvious that Jesus was not talking about the stone building. He was talking about Himself, and due to the hardness of the hearts they missed their day of visitation. 

And in that moment Jesus makes a jaw dropping claim. He tells them what they are going to do to Him, “Destroy this temple.” In other words, they will kill Him. Then He declares what will happen afterward, “in three days I will raise it up.”

Right here at the beginning of His ministry, Jesus points forward to the cross and the resurrection. The ultimate sign of His authority would not be some display in the sky. The ultimate sign would be that He would be killed and then rise from the dead.

And notice something else in His words: “I will raise it up.”Jesus speaks of His own resurrection with authority. The resurrection is the work of the triune God: Father, Son, and Spirit. Jesus’ declaration demonstrates His authority and divine power over death itself.

This is the sign that ultimately validates everything Jesus claimed about Himself. The resurrection proves that He truly is the Son of God, the Messiah, and the Lord of the temple.

Now look at what verse 22 tells us about the disciples: “When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.”

At the moment, they did not fully grasp what Jesus was talking about either. But after the resurrection Jesus' words come back to them and it hits them like a ton of bricks. They remembered His words, they saw the empty tomb, and their faith was strengthened.

And this is where the resurrection changes everything. Because Jesus is not just another teacher or prophet who died and stayed in the grave. History is full of dead teachers and prophets, and only one who conquered the grave. He is the risen Lord. The entire Christian faith stands on that reality. If Christ had not risen, there would be no gospel, no forgiveness, no hope. But because He did rise, everything about our worship and our lives is different.

The old temple system has passed away. The sacrifices pointed forward to Him. The priesthood pointed forward to Him. Even the temple itself pointed to Him. Through His death and resurrection, sinners are brought into fellowship with God.

And that means our faith is anchored in a living Savior. We do not follow a dead religious system. We follow the risen Christ.

So the question for us is not just whether we understand the resurrection intellectually. The question is whether our lives are actually shaped by it. Because when you truly believe that Christ rose from the dead, it changes how you worship, how you live, and what you live for. You understand that your life no longer belongs to you and that God is not interested in vain or worthless worship.

The same Lord who cleansed the temple, who proclaimed His authority, and who promised His resurrection is the Lord who calls His people to live in the power of that resurrection, with hearts devoted to the glory of God and lives marked by holiness and zeal for Him. Not only when we gather for worship, but in every aspect of our daily lives. Christ’s death and resurrection calls us to live with this same devoted, holy zeal continually.

As we come to the end of this passage, we need to remember that John did not record this event simply so that we would admire a dramatic moment in Jesus’ ministry. He recorded it so that we would see Christ clearly and examine ourselves honestly.

Because when Jesus walked into the temple that day, He was not just confronting a corrupt system. He was exposing the deeper problem of the human heart.

Those people in the temple were religious. They were in the right place. They were there during the right feast. They were participating in the right rituals. But their worship had become hollow. It had become transactional. It had become something they could manage, manipulate, and control.

And Jesus would have none of it. The Son of God stepped into His Father’s house and exposed the truth: worship that is outwardly busy but inwardly empty is offensive to God.

That should cause every one of us to pause for a moment. Because the question this passage forces us to ask is not simply, “What was wrong with them?” The question is, “What does Christ find when He examines my heart?”

If Jesus walked through the doors of our lives the way He walked through the courts of that temple, what would He find?

Would He find hearts that are humble before Him?

Would He find repentance and genuine devotion?

Or would He find the same thing He found in Jerusalem, religion on the outside, but hearts that are distant from God?

Make no mistake it is possible to attend church regularly and still have a heart that is far from the Lord. It is possible to sing the songs, listen to sermons, and participate in every activity the church offers while still holding on to idols in the heart.

The reality is this: Christ is still zealous for the purity of His Father’s house. Scripture tells us that believers are now the temple of the living God. God does not dwell in buildings made by human hands, He dwells in His people. As God dwells in us by His Spirit, He is concerned with the condition of our hearts. True worship is not about actions alone, it flows from hearts that have been cleansed and renewed. Like the temple courts, our lives are to be free from idols, sin, and self-centered motives. That means the same Lord who cleansed the temple in Jerusalem is concerned about what fills the temple of our hearts today.

The good news of the gospel is that the One who exposes false worship is also the One who makes true worship possible. Because the very zeal that drove Jesus to cleanse the temple is the zeal that carried Him to the cross.

The religious leaders would eventually do exactly what He said, they would destroy the temple of His body. They would crucify Him. But three days later, just as He promised, He rose from the grave.

Because He rose, sinners like us can be forgiven.Because He rose, hearts of stone can be made hearts that truly worship.Because He rose, we can approach God not through empty rituals but through the finished work of Jesus Christ.

So the call this morning is simple but serious: Examine your heart. Do you come before God with genuine repentance? Do you approach Him with reverence and gratitude?Is your worship driven by love for Christ, or is it merely routine?

The same Jesus who overturned tables in the temple is the same Lord who searches hearts today. And if the Spirit of God is revealing areas of compromise, hypocrisy, or coldness toward Him, the answer is not to hide it. The answer is to bring it to Christ.

Repent. Turn from it. Seek Him.

Because the goal of the Christian life is not merely religious activity.

The goal is a heart that loves the Father and worships Him in spirit and truth.

The Lord of the temple has come. The true temple has been raised from the dead. And now He calls His people to worship Him with clean hands, pure hearts, and lives that burn with zeal for the glory of God.

So may we be a people who do not merely gather in the name of Christ, but who truly belong to Him, hearts cleansed by His grace, lives surrendered to His authority, and worship offered for the glory of the Father.