Prophet, Priest, & King (Mark 11)
Notes
Transcript
Handout
For those who are sports fans, have you ever heard of the term “two-way player”?
What does it mean?
Can you think of any players that you know of that are two-way players?
In 1996, Deion Sanders became the first regular starter on offense and defense in 34 years.
He was playing for the Dallas Cowboys.
He was a good wide-receiver, but an even better cornerback.
He won back to back superbowls with the 49ers, and Cowboys.
He also played major league baseball, and played in a world series.
Deion Sanders was good at both offense and defense,
which is not very common.
Probably mostly so that players would last longer and not get so beat up.
Transition
In Christian theology, Jesus is often referred to as Prophet, Priest, and King.
These are the 3 major roles that were of significance in Israelite history.
Prophet
A prophet spoke God’s Word to His people.
Ultimately, Jesus fulfilled this role by giving full revelation of God’s will.
Priest
A priest mediates between God and man.
Jesus was the fulfilment of a priest, being the sacrifice through which people are reconciled to God.
King
A king led the people of God, and kept them in line with God’s Word.
Jesus is our King, and will establish His kingdom on earth. We willingly submit to His authority.
Jesus is an even better two-way player… a three-way player.
Through his life, death, and resurrection…
He becomes all we need, and therefore deserving of our worship!
We Must Worship Jesus as King
We Must Worship Jesus as King
There have been a lot of misunderstandings to this point about who Jesus is.
But as He enters Jerusalem, those who are following Him give Him the praise and worship He deserves as the King of Israel.
The rightful King deserves our worship.
***Ask someone to read***
Now when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples
and said to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it.
If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately.’ ”
And they went away and found a colt tied at a door outside in the street, and they untied it.
And some of those standing there said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?”
And they told them what Jesus had said, and they let them go.
And they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and he sat on it.
And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields.
And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!”
And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.
EXPLAIN
EXPLAIN
The reason Jesus came was to die for sin and be raised on the third day.
He now enters Jerusalem… this is the last week of his life.
His entire life has been pointing to this moment.
Jesus tells his disciples to get a colt.
Either Jesus had been making preparations for this day, or in His sovereignty he knew…
The riding of this donkey was a fulfilment of Scripture…
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
Jesus is openly declaring himself as the long-awaited Messiah.
Those with eyes to see would make the connection.
The people following Jesus use their cloaks on the donkey as a make-shift saddles…
and others spread their cloaks and leafs on the road as a sort of “red carpet” treatment…
and they worship and honour Jesus as their King.
APPLY
APPLY
The people around Jesus praised Him,
even though they did not yet fully understand all that He would do.
They did not understand what he had come to accomplish through his death and resurrection.
BUT WE DO!!!
We know that as the Messiah, Jesus came to die as the sacrifice for our sins.
He died in our place, so that through faith in Him, our sins would be forgiven.
This should lead us to an even greater fulfilment of worship of Jesus.
In what ways could we show worship/honour to a king?
Reverence
Using respectful/formal titles (Our Father who art in heaven…)
Obedience
Listen to and follow His commands
Gifts
Prayer, worship, drawing near to him.
Public Testimony
telling others of what he has done in our lives.
Service & Devotion
Living our lives for his glory/serving him and others with our gifts.
Transition
If we have placed our faith in Jesus,
He is our rightful King,
and deserving of our worship!
We must also…
We Must Worship Jesus as Priest
We Must Worship Jesus as Priest
We have seen at many times the confrontations Jesus had with the religious leaders of the day.
He came to show what true obedience to God’s law looked like since they had so royally messed it up.
Ultimately, Jesus is the rightful Priest, who deserves our worship.
***Ask 3 volunteers to read — each a section (Mark 11:12-14; 15-19; and 20-21)***
On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry.
And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.
And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it.
And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons.
And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple.
And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.”
And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching.
And when evening came they went out of the city.
As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots.
And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.”
EXPLAIN
EXPLAIN
We should see these stories as pointing to something deeper.
Jesus is using the fig tree as an example/symbol for the temple, and pronouncing judgement on it.
First Jesus comes to the fig tree that had leaves… it had the perception of being fruitful.
But there were no figs, since it was not the season for figs.
Jesus had come to inspect the fig tree unannounced… at a time when it wasn’t expected.
Seeing no fruit, he cursed the fig tree.
Then Jesus goes to the temple, and with everything going on, it seems to be fruitful.
But Jesus does not find the fruit that he hopes to find.
People were being taken advantage of when exchanging their money…
People were paying too much for animals to sacrifice…
People were using this part of the temple as a shortcut through the city…
This was all taking place in the court of Gentiles…
which was supposed to be a place of prayer for all people…
but it had been turned into a marketplace.
The next morning, the disciples find the fig tree withered.
What this teaches us is that Jesus has pronounced a curse on the temple and its messed up system.
The fig tree is a symbolic act of judgement by Jesus on the temple and the priests.
Rather than being a place where people can come to have peace with the God of the universe…
it was a place of greed and selfishness.
Transition
Jesus was the rightful priest, and had come to restore true worship…
He came to make a way for people to have a relationship with their Creator… God!
As our true, great High Priest, Jesus deserves our worship.
APPLY
APPLY
It is very easy for us to be judgemental of those religious leaders for their greed.
But truthfully, it is very easy for us to fall into this trap as well.
There is nothing wrong with having money and things that God blesses us…
But when we love it… desire it… are greedy for it…
That is when it draws us away from God.
Can you think of ways that people have used religion as a means for getting wealthy?
Prosperity Gospel Preaching (you will get wealthy if you give me money)
Exploiting people with fundraising (high pressure; manipulating)
Selling products (false assumption of spiritual benefit)
Misuse of church funds
All of these things are sinful and wrong.
These people are putting their faith and trust in the wrong things.
We need to put our faith in God… not in the things of this world.
Jesus uses the cursing of the fig tree as an opportunity to emphasize faith and prayer.
And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God.
Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him.
Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”
Our faith needs to be in God and the fact that he hears us, and wants to answer our prayers.
Jesus is not speaking literally here… he is not going to uproot mountains.
He himself did not perform acts like this.
His point is that we understand the incredible power available to us through His Spirit when we pray and have faith.
One important aspect of our prayers, is that we are willing to forgive anyone who has wronged us.
The greatest example of answered prayer in our lives is God’s willingness to forgive our sins through Christ’s High Priestly work through His sacrifice!
So how could we then as God’s people not offer to forgiveness to one another?
We are to follow the example of the God we serve.
Transition
Christ is our High Priest,
who has come to usher in a new covenant of worship based on His sacrifice…
therefore, he is worthy of our worship.
We must also…
We Must Worship Jesus as Prophet
We Must Worship Jesus as Prophet
Jesus has been doing some pretty bold and audacious things.
To clear the temple and tell everyone to get out caused the religious leaders to want to kill him!
The leaders are going to come and question his authority.
But Jesus is the rightful Prophet, who deserves our attention.
***Ask someone to read***
And they came again to Jerusalem. And as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to him,
and they said to him, “By what authority are you doing these things, or who gave you this authority to do them?”
Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things.
Was the baptism of John from heaven or from man? Answer me.”
And they discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’
But shall we say, ‘From man’?”—they were afraid of the people, for they all held that John really was a prophet.
So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”
EXPLAIN
EXPLAIN
What Jesus had done was so invasive,
that this meeting may have included the top officials and priests would have likely been there.
They had a way of doing things that Jesus was disrupting,
and they wanted to know what authority he had to mess it all up.
Jesus could have asked them what authority they had to be doing all the unlawful things they were doing!
Instead of doing that, Jesus asks a question to expose their hearts.
“Was the baptism of John from heaven or from man? Answer me.”
Only Mark includes this demand from Jesus.
They couldn’t wiggle out of this one.
We can obviously see their hypocrisy as they debate how to answer.
The truth is, that they have no interest in coming to the truth at all…
but only in finding and giving an answer that benefits them.
Seeing no way out, they say they don’t know.
Because of their failure to answer, Jesus refuses to play their games.
Instead, he tells a parable:
***Ask someone to read***
And he began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and leased it to tenants and went into another country.
When the season came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard.
And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed.
Again he sent to them another servant, and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully.
And he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others: some they beat, and some they killed.
He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’
But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’
And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard.
What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others.
Have you not read this Scripture: “ ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”
And they were seeking to arrest him but feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they left him and went away.
Summary
God had been incredibly patient with His people, sending prophets time and time again.
But the Israelites continually rejected God’s Word through these prophets, including Jesus.
These religious leaders and chief priests were not truly interested in finding out if Jesus really was the Messiah and whether or not he had the authority to do what he did.
They wouldn’t have believed him anyway!
They had showed that with their failure to believe John the Baptist.
APPLY
APPLY
The truth is, that Jesus did have the authority to do what He did.
He himself was God, and even as a man had been given authority from His Father to do what He was doing.
He was the true prophet, sent by God to teach His ways.
The religious leaders should have recognized his authority by all of his miracles, as well as his teaching.
Everything that Jesus did was a connected to the OT, and was a fulfilment of it.
Through all of this we see the incredible patience of God!
He had repeatedly sent prophets to His people to call out their sin…
He wanted them to walk in faithfulness to his Word and receive blessings…
Ultimately He was patient enough to send His own Son…
All of this so that people could experience His grace, forgiveness, and goodness!
In what ways do we see God’s patience today?
We continue to exist (God doesn’t destroy us!)
He continues to forgive those who call on Him
He is delaying His judgement so that people can be saved
He uses us as His people to be a light, and have compassion… to limit evil
He continues to provide blessings despite sin
Summary
We must recognize that Jesus is God’s prophet, and therefore worthy of our worship!
We should read His Word…
Obey His Word…
Memorize His Word…
All of this leads to us receiving the blessings and promises that He has for us.
This is all an act of His grace in our lives!
Conclusion
Conclusion
Jesus is our King… our Priest… and our Prophet!
He perfectly fulfilled all of these wonderful roles,
and is worthy of our worship!
