The House Of Prayer

Mark 11:12–25 (ESV)

Since 1999, 40 million people have left the American church. That’s more than became Christians in the Great Awakening and Billy Graham revivals combined.

It is being called, “The Great De-Churching of America”

There are many places to lay the blame (culture, politics, the devil).

Maybe there is an opportunity for us to look at ourselves. Not necessarily to respond to the complaints of the people who have walked away, but to align ourselves to the heart of God expressed in the scriptures.

This text offers us an opportunity to examine exactly how our King desires that we show up in the world as representatives of His Kingdom.

Here we have the account of Jesus cursing a fruitless tree placed in the middle by Jesus’ cleansing of the Jerusalem temple.

And the punchline of the narratives…the special sauce on this Markan Sandwich is the later part of verse number 17: “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.”

The cursing of the tree is about the people of prayer. The cleansing of the temple is about the place of prayer.

The two scenes are best understood together.

As we endeavor to be self-reflective about the life and the health of the church, I want to preach for a few moments on the subject: The House of Prayer.

PRAYER

I want to start at the end of our reading where we find Jesus teaching His disciples about what it means for people to be people of prayer.

Mark 11:22–24 ESV

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.

Jesus has cursed the fig tree

He saw leaves on the tree which indicated that there should something to eat on the tree.

Having crossed the road to eat from the tree and finding that the tree offered nothing to eat…he cursed it.

The disciples are amazed that overnight the tree has withered at the Lord’s word.

Jesus’ response is this, “I didn’t do anything but pray.”

And He uses this hyperbole to drive home the point: if anybody speaks to this mountain “be cast into the sea” (nobody was going to do that)

The point is that Jesus wanted His people be people of prayer.

People who pray big prayers

People who pray in faith

And that means that they know how to press into faith and push away doubt.

Jesus says “you must not doubt, but believe”

My wife makes fun of me because I phrase things like this all the time.

Are they coming with me, yes or no?

Do you want the light on or do you want it off?

Are you with me or am I by myself?

These statements seem strange, a little unnecessarily repetitive because the ideas are opposite. If one is true then the other is clearly not (or so it seems).

But, I believe (and I would point out to my darling wife, that it seems that Jesus also believes) that some things can be opposite, but still distinct.

That somehow you can want the light on and still sorta want the light off.

And we have to figure out how to reconcile those opposing desires.

We didn’t preach it in this survey through the book of Mark, but the evangelist has already given us an example of this in chapter 9

There is a boy with an mute spirit that would convulse him and throw him into the fire and burn him.

The father brings the boy to Jesus’ disciples and they could not cast the spirit out.

When Jesus shows up he says to the father, “if you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes”.

The father responds to Jesus, “I believe. Help my unbelief”.

Somebody knows what this father was talking about.

I have faith. But, I also have this doubt working with me.

In prayer we allow God to strengthen our faith and remove our doubt.

One of the biggest instigators of doubt is self-disqualification.

I believe that God can do it. But, I have a hard time believing that God will do it for me…this sense that I am not good enough.

Jesus teaches that the way you deal with self-disqualification is by releasing others from the offenses they have done against you.

Beloved, can I tell you that if you are carrying unforgiveness in your heart, you are handicapping your faith!

We like to talk about that we are saved by faith through grace.

But, when you look at scripture, you begin to see that faith itself is a gift from God…increased faith requires more than an act of your will, it requires an act of God’s grace.

And Mercy is the carry oil of grace.

Hebrews 4:16 “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

We receive mercy, then we find grace.

What do I mean that mercy is the carrier oil of grace

My wife loves to use essential oils. But, for most of the topical oils, they are too concentrated to just put on your skin. So you have to mix it with some coconut oil or olive oil that delivers the essential oil effectively to the skin…that is called a carrier.

Beloved grace is too hot…it is too concentrated for this flesh. So, when we go to the throne, God puts on first some mercy to be a carrier for the grace.

But the mercy and forgiveness of God is directly linked to our willingness to forgive others. Matthew 6:14-15 “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

In cursing the tree, Jesus was giving the disciples and object lesson in what it looks like to be a people of prayer.

But, why curse the tree in the first place?

The tree stood as a metaphor for the temple.

In as much as the people of God were supposed to be a people of prayer, the temple was supposed to be the place of prayer.

In the design that God gave to Solomon for the temple, He established an outer court called “The Court of The Gentiles”

This was the place where Jewish proselytes…non-ethnic Jews who had converted to spiritual Judaism…could come for worship.

They were not allowed to go deeper into the temple.

And what so angered Jesus in the high priest Caiaphas had authorized a market to be set up in the Court of the Gentiles

They were selling ritually pure items necessary for temple sacrifice: wine, oil, salt, approved sacrificial animals and birds.

They were changing Roman money and Greek money for the required Jewish coinage for the annual half-shekel temple tax (Ex. 30:12–16)

They were allowing people who needed to move merchandise to take a shortcut through this area of the temple, making it a toll road to get quickly from one part of the city to another.

This was the place where the gentiles were supposed to be able to come for worship, but the Jews had turned it into a full-blown market.

Just like Jesus had crossed the road to eat from the fig tree because the fig tree was full of leaves, and when He got there the tree had nothing to eat…

People would travel from all over the known world to Jerusalem to worship Jehovah because the temple was in Jerusalem, and when they got there, there was no place for them to worship.

You see, beloved, when Jesus says that they had turned the temple into a den of robbers, it was not because of their financial corruption.

there is an insinuation that the financial dealings taking place in the market were less than honest…there fraud and greed involved.

But, the greater sin was that they had robbed the gentiles of their place of opportunity to worship and connect with God.

Jesus did not curse the tree because it was barren, Jesus cursed the tree because it was false. It had leaves, but there was nothing to eat.

Jesus did not cleanse the temple because it was busy. Jesus cleansed the temple because it was false. It had priests and altars, but there was nowhere to pray.

But what does any of this have to do with the state of the church today?

Well, let me direct your attention once more to the text.

Mark 11:13 (ESV)

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.

The text tells us that it was not the season for figs. So, why was Jesus looking for fruit in the first place?

Can I tell you a little bit about Palestinian fig trees?

It was April…Passover.

In Palestine fig trees produce these small edible buds in March followed by the appearance of large green leaves in early April.

This early green “fruit” (buds) was common food for local peasants.

They drop off in late May and June, the fig season when the normal crop of figs form and ripen.

Jesus wasn’t looking for figs on the tree. But, he did expect to find something edible on that fig tree even though it was not the season for figs.

The Jerusalem temple was not the House of Prayer that Isaiah prophesied.

Even in the best of times (when there was no market in the court of the gentiles), the nations could not come into the Holy Place of the temple.

And even among the Jews, only the High Priest could go into the Most Holy Place, and only one time a year.

Jesus did not expect to find people coming boldly before the throne of grace…but He did expect that they would be able to offer some kind of prayer.

So where is the House of Prayer that Isaiah prophesied about?

Can I read the words of Ephesians Chapter 2:

Eph 2:19–22 “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”

The people of prayer have become the place of prayer.

When people encounter the church…the gathered body of believers

The should be translated into a living temple where all people can find a point of connection with God

They should find a place with us where they can press into faith and push away doubt

They should find a place with us where they can receive forgiveness and release offenses.

WE ARE THE HOUSE OF PRAYER

If Jesus came here…

Would He knock over this podium and tear these screens off the wall?

Would He say that we have made this place

a house of Judgmentalism and religious arrogance?

A house of cultural influence and social control?

Maybe He wouldn’t have that to say about us, but would He say that we have this…

A house of preaching…?

a house of evangelism…?

a bible study…?

when it is written that this should be

Am I saying that we should not study the bible? No…but we should remember that we study the Bible because the Bible is the language of prayer.

Am I saying that we should not do evangelism? Not at all…but we should remember that the most important aspect of evangelism is prayer.

Am I saying that we should not preach? Obviously that is not what I believe…I’m preaching now, but we should be ever so careful to remember that all preaching should be inspired speech calling us to the place of prayer. We preach how to pray, and why we pray, and what we should pray about.

I can’t think of a better way to respond to this message than to pray for prayer.

Let’s pray that this will be a place…that we will be a people where anyone can come and practice faith and practice forgiveness…where people can engage with God…

That’s what’s going to make the difference in somebody’s life!

Come on, let’s pray.