2019-04-10 Mark 11:15-19
Notes
Transcript
15 They came to Jerusalem, and he went into the temple and began to throw out those buying and selling. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves,
16 and would not permit anyone to carry goods through the temple.
17 He was teaching them: “Is it not written, My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations? But you have made it a den of thieves!”
18 The chief priests and the scribes heard it and started looking for a way to kill him. For they were afraid of him, because the whole crowd was astonished by his teaching.
19 Whenever evening came, they would go out of the city.
I. God deplores self centered worship.
I. God deplores self centered worship.
15 They came to Jerusalem, and he went into the temple and began to throw out those buying and selling. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves,
16 and would not permit anyone to carry goods through the temple.
A. For the Jews comfort and convenience were placed above mission.
A. For the Jews comfort and convenience were placed above mission.
15 They came to Jerusalem, and he went into the temple and began to throw out those buying and selling. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves,
16 and would not permit anyone to carry goods through the temple.
Illus: Not every person had sheep or goats or the required animals required for sacrifice. Many people from all over the world came to Jerusalem to sacrifice and did not carry the currency used in the temple. The problem was not that the people of Israel sold sheep and goats nor exchanged currency.
Traditionally when currency was exchanged people and animals were purchased, those actions occured on the mount of olives across from the city.
Over time the practice for Jews having to go back and forth across the valley, and entering the city became exhausting. The solution was that the merchants were brought into the temple. They decided to make worship easier… for themselves.
The solution was to sacrifice space in the gentile courts of worship for Jewish worshipers. They brought the sacrifices
The call of God has always been to sacrifice yourself for others… How often do we turn and demand others sacrifice for us.
When preferences, comfort, convenience lead us to a place where the church ceases to be for outsiders, foreigners, people who look differently than us, people who are economically different than us… when we make the church for our own comforts… it will be time for Jesus to come in and turn over the tables in this place.
23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You pay a tenth of mint, dill, and cumin, and yet you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy, and faithfulness. These things should have been done without neglecting the others.
24 Blind guides! You strain out a gnat, but gulp down a camel!
25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside of it may also become clean.
1 The Lord said to Abram: Go out from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.
2 I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you, I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.
B. Spiritual selfishness needs to be thrown out of the church.
B. Spiritual selfishness needs to be thrown out of the church.
15 They came to Jerusalem, and he went into the temple and began to throw out those buying and selling. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves,
16 and would not permit anyone to carry goods through the temple.
Illus: A few weeks ago we had an electric problem in the church. Our screens didn’t work, the wireless microphones didn’t work, most of our musicians power sources didn’t work.
We had a service with just piano singing from the hymnal.
You would not believe the number of people who came to me after the service to let me know how much they enjoyed the service. You would not believe the number of people who told me and wrote me notes expressing a hope that the screens would continue to be down so that we could sing their style.
You would not believe it, but we had people making calls proclaiming the great new that FBC was singing real songs again.
That Sunday, many people worshiped a style of music over the God whom the music pointed to. FBCV does not exist to worship music… we exist to worship God.
BTW… worship idolatry swings both ways. After that Sunday where the screens were down, I sat down with my girls and talked with them about how the style of worship should not affect our hearts in worship.
It is very possible to go through all the motions of a good church person, and only worship yourself on a Sunday morning.
23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You pay a tenth of mint, dill, and cumin, and yet you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy, and faithfulness. These things should have been done without neglecting the others.
24 Blind guides! You strain out a gnat, but gulp down a camel!
25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside of it may also become clean.
II. God doesn’t accept “get off my lawn” worship.
II. God doesn’t accept “get off my lawn” worship.
16 and would not permit anyone to carry goods through the temple.
17 He was teaching them: “Is it not written, My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations? But you have made it a den of thieves!”
A. Evangelism, worship, and racial reconciliation should work together.
A. Evangelism, worship, and racial reconciliation should work together.
16 and would not permit anyone to carry goods through the temple.
17 He was teaching them: “Is it not written, My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations? But you have made it a den of thieves!”
Illus: It is our temptation to cater church and worship to ourselves. This is not just a young and old thing… but it is also a our type of people-their type of people.
One of the major themes of the New Testament letters was the struggle between a Jewish church learning to make room for a gentile church.
It probably would have been easier to form the first denomination where there was the First Christian Jewish Church, and the First Christian Gentile Church of Jerusalem. That was never God’s intent.
God desired that the gospel would unite two distinct people groups as Jesus was greater than the cultural differences. There would be no Jewish court, nor Gentile court. There was no Jewish church or gentile church.
There was God’s church.
God always intended the temple be a place where the nations would worship Him… today God intends for nations to worship Him in unity.
6 As for the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to become his servants— all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold firmly to my covenant—
7 I will bring them to my holy mountain and let them rejoice in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar, for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.”
B. God desires a heaven mirroring picture of worship on our earth.
B. God desires a heaven mirroring picture of worship on our earth.
16 and would not permit anyone to carry goods through the temple.
17 He was teaching them: “Is it not written, My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations? But you have made it a den of thieves!”
Illus: We are living in a divided time. It is very much a time where we live us vs them.
We are black and white, democrat and republicans, rich and poor.
And we tend to stay with our own tribe.
In a time when we are so tribal, the church tends to be tribal as well.
I don’t preach politics from the pulpit… because Jesus is bigger than politics. Political division does not need to keep people from God’s house of prayer.
There is going to be a hosts of Democrats in heaven… there might even be a few republicans.
That said, we don’t need to be selling politics in church… this is a church for all people.
There is a temptation to think we have our church and they have there’s regarding race...
But God’s church should transcend race. Jesus says that He is worshiped by all nations.
If we can’t worship together here… what really defines our church?
We should strive to be a picture of heaven here on this earth.
9 After this I looked, and there was a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, which no one could number, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands.
10 And they cried out in a loud voice: Salvation belongs to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!
III. Jesus closed the temple.
III. Jesus closed the temple.
15 They came to Jerusalem, and he went into the temple and began to throw out those buying and selling. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves,
16 and would not permit anyone to carry goods through the temple.
17 He was teaching them: “Is it not written, My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations? But you have made it a den of thieves!”
A. Jesus closed the temple to enable all men to know God.
A. Jesus closed the temple to enable all men to know God.
Illus: Jesus did not cleanse the temple. Jesus closed the temple.
Much like the pictures of God removing the candles from churches in revelation, Jesus came to expose and show the emptiness of the building which would cease to hold God’s Spirit.
That said, God’s plan was to establish what what was corrupted by those in the temple.
God established his church as a church for all people.
1 As he was going out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Teacher, look! What massive stones! What impressive buildings!”
2 Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left upon another—all will be thrown down.”
37 Jesus let out a loud cry and breathed his last.
38 Then the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.
39 When the centurion, who was standing opposite him, saw the way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”
1 When the day of Pentecost had arrived, they were all together in one place.
2 Suddenly a sound like that of a violent rushing wind came from heaven, and it filled the whole house where they were staying.
3 They saw tongues like flames of fire that separated and rested on each one of them.
4 Then they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them.
5 Now there were Jews staying in Jerusalem, devout people from every nation under heaven.
6 When this sound occurred, a crowd came together and was confused because each one heard them speaking in his own language.