A Beautiful Thing
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Introduction
The Question of the Temple (Mark 11:12-19)
The Question of the Temple (Mark 11:12-19)
This is weird. Jesus seems to act very out of character:
Fig tree
Temple
For the disciples, the temple cleansing was what they had waited for. But the way Jesus did it was disappointing. The fig tree is there to asnwer the question of the temple
Read 1 Kings 8
Read 1 Kings 8
“When they sin against you—for there is no one who does not sin—and you become angry with them and give them over to their enemies, who take them captive to their own lands, far away or near; and if they have a change of heart in the land where they are held captive, and repent and plead with you in the land of their captors and say, ‘We have sinned, we have done wrong, we have acted wickedly’; and if they turn back to you with all their heart and soul in the land of their enemies who took them captive, and pray to you toward the land you gave their ancestors, toward the city you have chosen and the temple I have built for your Name; then from heaven, your dwelling place, hear their prayer and their plea, and uphold their cause. And forgive your people, who have sinned against you; forgive all the offenses they have committed against you, and cause their captors to show them mercy;
The Temple was meant to be the place of PRAYER and RECONCILIATION. (1 Kings 8:27-53)
Read Jeremiah 7:1-11
Read Jeremiah 7:1-11
“ ‘Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, “We are safe”—safe to do all these detestable things? Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the Lord.
Israel’s leaders used it as a place of POWER and CORRUPTION. (Jeremiah 7:1-11)
Read Malachi 3:1-5
Read Malachi 3:1-5
Read Isaiah 56:1-7
Read Isaiah 56:1-7
Jesus was supposed to CLEANSE his temple and RESTORE its priests. (Malachi 3:1-5, Isaiah 56:1-7)
The Answer of the Fig Tree (Mark 11:20-25)
The Answer of the Fig Tree (Mark 11:20-25)
“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them.
God works through faithful PEOPLE, not fancy BUILDINGS. (v. 22-23)
Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
God’s people can trust that the BUILDINGS will FALL, even while they are STANDING. (v. 24)
And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”
For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Our job is to do the work of the temple—PRAYER and RECONCILIATION. (v. 25; Ephesians 2:14-22, 1 Peter 2:4-10)
