Mark Chapter 11
Mark • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 9 viewsNotes
Transcript
NCAA Bracket
NCAA Bracket
Lowest Score: 38
Highest Score: 109
Average Score: 79
Biggest jump: Hunter Tutterow
Lowest Score: Braxton Asbury
No Final Four Teams: Aaron Bruner
5th place: Jackson Westmoreland
4th place: Brayden Westmoreland
3rd place: Hunter Tutterow
2nd place: James Roman
1st place: Kate Harrison, CK Stratton
Intro
Intro
Students are getting into the home stretch!
Like seriously we are nearing the end of Mark
Only a couple more chapters and its over!
Here’s what we missed in Mark 10:
VS. 32-34: Jesus foretells his death and resurrection for a third time
VS. 35-45: James and John ask to be great. Jesus answers that they are to be servants to all
VS. 46-52: Jesus heals a blind man named Bartimaeus because of his faith
Some crazy stuff is happening and we are nearing the end!
Don’t miss what God is doing!
But man today we are starting the Holy Week!
The time when Jesus is on His way and enters Jerusalem
The week before He is going to be ultimately killed for the sin of everyone!
So lets take a look at it!
Triumphal Entry
Triumphal Entry
1 Now when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples 2 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. 3 If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately.’ ” 4 And they went away and found a colt tied at a door outside in the street, and they untied it. 5 And some of those standing there said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” 6 And they told them what Jesus had said, and they let them go. 7 And they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and he sat on it. 8 And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. 9 And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!” 11 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.
Jesus is entering Jerusalem the week before he is going to be killed
And notice what is happening in this section
The people, all of them, are declaring Him King!
They are throwing down their cloaks on the ground so that the colt doesn’t touch the ground
This is a reference to 2 Kings 9:12-13 which says
12 And they said, “That is not true; tell us now.” And he said, “Thus and so he spoke to me, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord, I anoint you king over Israel.’ ” 13 Then in haste every man of them took his garment and put it under him on the bare steps, and they blew the trumpet and proclaimed, “Jehu is king.”
They were declaring Jesus as KING!
Hosanna translates to “save now”
At this moment, they did love him with all their hearts and desired to honor him as king.
The problem?
The missed what kind of King he was
The crowds expected Jesus to establish his Kingdom immediately
They expected Him to walk in and remove the Roman oppression and bring Israel back to its glorious state
Yet that isn’t what Jesus’ mission was
He didn’t come to restore national Israel, but instead came to free everyone from the captivity of sin
The question I want us to ponder today is this:
What happens when Jesus is misunderstood?
What happens when Jesus is misunderstood?
He is misunderstood here
The people expected Him to come and establish the Kingdom of David
To rule and destroy the nation of Rome
To bring Israel to the beauty and grandur that it once was
But we know the story — we know what Jesus did
We have been diligently walking through Mark and know Jesus over and over said He must die and be raised
Jesus didn’t say He came to bring Israel back to glory — what the people thought — He instead over and over has said he came to “seek and save the Lost”
45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
He came to save the Lost and offer forgiveness and reconciliation for sin
So what happens when Jesus is misunderstood?
Lack of fruit
Lack of fruit
Listen to what happens next after Jesus arrives in Jerusalem
12 On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. 13 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. 14 And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it.
Jesus goes to get a bite of food and there is no figs on the tree
Even though figs were supposed to appear at the same time as the leaves and the tree was in full bloom
So Jesus curses it
20 As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. 21 And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.”
The tree that Jesus cursed is withered at its root
It is completely destroyed
I don’t know if any of you have ever done anything with plants, but if a leaf or two withers, you can usually recover the plant
But if the roots are destroyed it doesn’t matter what the tree looks like, it’s not coming back
Man this gives our first reality of what happens when Jesus is misunderstood:
No fruit is produced
When Jesus is misunderstood and the teachings of Jesus are not followed there is no fruit produced
In the Old Testament over and over again a fig tree is used to describe the nation of Israel
Here the fig tree is used to represent the nation of Israel
On the outside it looks good — leaves in full bloom
Everything looks solid
Yet when you get up to it theres no fruit
There is nothing of value at the tree!
Because of this there is judgment — the fig tree is destroyed
Man Jesus is looking at the disciples, looking at us and teaching us a terrifying message
When there is no fruit produced, judgment is coming
Jesus is showing that it doesn’t matter how good it looks on the outside — if there isn’t fruit destruction is coming
Israel was looking good! They welcomed Jesus to Jerusalem with open arms!
HOSANNA! SAVE US!
Yet they missed the point! There was no fruit!
They missed who Jesus was! They wanted something from Him, they didn’t want Him!
The same is true in our life!
If we misunderstand Jesus there is destruction in our path!
If we aren’t producing fruit for the Kingdom we are of no value!
Jesus said it best
13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.
If we aren’t producing fruit we are worth nothing, we simply hinder what God is trying to do!
Students the first danger in misunderstanding Jesus is that we don’t produce fruit which leads to destruction
But lets look at what else happens when we misunderstand Jesus
Our focus is wrong
Our focus is wrong
15 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. 16 And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. 17 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.”
Jesus drives out the money changers from the temple
The purpose of the money changers was to take foreign coins and change them for the money that was accepted in the temple
This is a good thing — however the problem was two fold
They set up in the only area that gentiles were allowed in the temple — so they are quite literally forcing them to come to them
They were cheating the people — there was no “exchange rate” so they could charge what they wanted and make a prophet
Because of this Jesus drives them out of the temple
They are breaking the Law of Moses:
21 “You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.
They are cheating those who are seeking the Lord God and Jesus drives them out
Here’s the second thing that happens: When we misunderstand Jesus
Our focus is wrong
When we misunderstand Jesus and who He is our focus becomes wrong
The money changers were Pharisees and Levites — people that work in the Temple
Yet they were the ones cheating the foreigners seeking to worship God
They were focused on making a profit rather than helping people come to the Lord
Students when we misunderstand Jesus and what He calls us to do our focus becomes wrong
We start to focus on anything that promises some satisfaction
For the pharisees here it was money
For others it is different pleasures and sinful desires
We start to focus on the wrong things
Direct Disobedience
Direct Disobedience
27 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, 28 and they said to him, “By what authority are you doing these things, or who gave you this authority to do them?” 29 Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. 30 Was the baptism of John from heaven or from man? Answer me.” 31 And they discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ 32 But shall we say, ‘From man’?”—they were afraid of the people, for they all held that John really was a prophet. 33 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.”
The priests and scribes come and challenge Jesus
Asking what authority he holds to make the claims that He is making
How dare He!
Jesus says He’ll answer them if they answer His question
However they are put in a bind either admit that Jesus is God, or go against the people who are pulling for Jesus (even if they are wrong)
Because of this they refuse to answer
This leads to our last point
When we misunderstand Jesus it leads us to:
Direct Disobedience
The Pharisees missed the point of who Jesus was
They didn’t see Him as God they didn’t understand
So they rejected Him as God and rejected His miracles and teachings
They directly disobey Him and go against Him at every moment
They attack his validity
When pressed with why they refuse to answer
Why? Because they misunderstand Jesus so much that they would rather disobey Him than follow Him
Students when we misunderstand Jesus it leads us to directly disobey Him
It leads us to accept sin as okay
To do wrong and say it’s right
It leads us to hurt people in the name of Jesus
It causes us to disobey!
Conclusion
Conclusion
Students don’t misunderstand Jesus
He tells us plainly all throughout the book of Mark who He is
He is God!
He is here to save us from our sin!
To forgive us and lead us to new life with Him!
He calls us to follow Him, learn about Him and grow!
Don’t misunderstand!
Discussion Questions
Discussion Questions
What does it mean for us to declare Jesus as King in our lives today?
In what ways might we be misunderstanding Jesus’s mission in our lives?
How can we ensure that our understanding of Jesus leads to producing fruit in our spiritual lives?
What are some examples of ‘wrong focus’ that can hinder our relationship with Christ?
How can you personally help others understand Jesus better?
