Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro:

We have been walking through the book of Mark for a little while now.

We discovered who Jesus was early on.

We also discovered early on that Jesus was in the business of restoration, healings, miracles,etc and it seemed as if someone was heralding from a street corner to “Come and Get it.”

As we continued in our journey we began to take a look inside.

We looked at our hearts, we discovered that we needed our hearts to be healthy, we needed to examine the “soil of our hearts.”

Some of us courageously asked Jesus to begin to cultivate our hearts.

We discovered who the Agent of Change was, Jesus.

Jesus is our Agent of Change.

We then began to look at what it meant to be healthy as a church.

We discussed that in order to be a healthy church that we needed to be healthy as individuals.

And over the last couple of weeks we took a long hard look at selfishness.

Before we get started today do I have your permission to challenge you?

I would encourage all of us to give the Holy Spirit permission to minister to us in these next few moments as we once again take a look inside of ourselves.

I encourage you to give the Holy Spirit permission to reveal conditions you may have that your are not aware of.

Let’s pray.

Let’s look at the situation we just read about for minute.

Jesus comes on scene and finds that the temple has become a marketplace, buying and selling.

Before we judge the people we just read about let’s talk about why the temple has become a marketplace.

If you were a devout worshipping Jew at this time by law you were required to offer sacrifices to the temple.

Remember though that the temple was in Jerusalem.

You may have lived far away from the temple, and your sacrifice had to be without blemish.

So the religious leadership had you “covered,” they set this marketplace up in the temple so you could fulfill the law.

This is how the temple got turned into a marketplace.

In this marketplace you had sellers and moneychangers.

You could only buy with temple currency, however you didn’t come with temple currency so you had to go to the moneychangers who were probably not very honest and then go to the sellers and buy your sacrifice and they knew you needed it and they were probably not very honest.

Long story long you were getting ripped off twice.

Has this portion of scripture ever made you wonder if Jesus had an anger problem?

Imagine with me for a moment, Jesus walks in and begins to drive out, not chase out but drive out the people who were buying and selling in the temple.

He begins to flip tables over.

Now imagine with me, you are at a flea market today and a man comes in yelling and flipping over tables and pushing you out, does that seem like an angry person?

Yes.

Would you call the police?

Yes.

Or a least someone would call the police.

I think we all know the right answer to whether or not Jesus had an anger problem, which is absolutely not.

And ponder this thought for a moment, Jesus said he only did what he saw the Father doing.

Just for a moment flip over to

John

In case you might have been thinking that Jesus was on an anger trip I can assure you he was not.

If Jesus was having a moment, a case of tripping out we would not have read that he made a whip of chords.

Think for a moment here is Jesus braiding together a whip of chords.

Imagine, maybe this sounds familiar “If there is any other way” he says as he braids the chord together.

He wasn’t angry, he wanted people to be able to worship God in freedom.

Let’s switch gears.

What started out as being an outlet of relief to worshipper became sin.

The religious leaders set up this marketplace to help the worshipper live in accordance to the law, however what started as a “Good Idea” turned out not to be a “God Idea.”

So what is sin for us today.

Idolatry, Covetousness, Selfishness, we talked quite a bit about that, murder, stealing.

Jesus said that they had turned his fathers house into a den of thieves.

Scripture is eternal.

Scripture has eternal applications, meaning that if it was applicable then, its applicable eternally.

It may have had a different application then than it does today, but its still applicable.

Let’s talk about the temple today.

In our text Jesus said they had turned his father’s house into a den of robbers.

So where is the temple today?

We are the temple of God.

Our hearts host the presence of God.

Let me ask you a question, your heart, your temple, how would Jesus describe the temple?

Would it be a house of prayer?

Or would it be a den of robbers?

Table Illustration

We were created to worship God, to have relationship with God.

Anything that robs from my relationship with God and my relationship with other people is sin.

Sin separates us from God.

Just as in the case of our text, many of the things on the table were not intended for bad.

God wants us to enjoy life.

Entertainment such as football isn’t evil in of itself, however when it robs my relationship with God or with others that's when it becomes a problem.

If football means I neglect my wife then it becomes a problem.

If my phone takes precedence over my relationship with God or people then it becomes a problem.

If my job takes precedence over my relationship with God or people then it becomes a problem.

Then the temple turns into a den of robbers.

I have allowed thieves to enter in to the most sacred part of my being.

Football then becomes a thief, my phone becomes a thief, and my job becomes a thief.

I end up with my heart, this table representing my temple, full of robbers.

What starts out as an outlet of enjoying life isn’t the problem, when it takes priority over your relationship with God and others that's when it becomes a sin.

What then is the solution when our temple has become a den of robbers?

We must allow Jesus to clear the temple.

Anything that robs from my relationship with God and my relationship with other people is sin.

Anything that robs from my relationship with God and my relationship with other people is sin.

Flip the Table

Now that we’ve cleared the temple we are at a place where we can worship God.

We can worship God in spirit and in truth.

This is what true worship looks like.

This is the relationship that Jesus desires to have with us.

Jesus wants to dine with us, when the table of our hearts are cleared authentic communion with Jesus can take place.

Communion

Pass Out the Elements

1 Cor 10:14-16

Bobby come and play.

If the things that were in our hearts were causing us to be separated from God and others those things are idols.

These things on the floor need to be left, I cannot resurrect these idols back into my life.

Once we allow Jesus and the Holy Spirit to reveal idols in our lives we must be vigilant not to allow those idols back into our lives.

This is why Jesus cleared the temple, he cleared the temple so that his people could authentically commune with God.

This is why we partake in communion, to have authentic relationship with God.

Sin separates us from God, we partake in communion because God instituted it for us to essentially clear the table of hearts, when the sin that cluttered our hearts is removed we can have real fellowship with God.

At the beginning of service I asked you to something bold and courageous, I asked you to give the Holy Spirit permission to search your heart and reveal to you conditions you might have.

Let’s take a few moments to pray and allow the Holy Spirit to minister to each of us.

As we pray ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you any sin that is cluttering your heart, ask Him to reveal any unforgiveness that you may have.

If the Holy Spirit reveals something to you, if it’s sin ask Jesus to forgive, if it’s unforgiveness ask the Holy Spirit to give you the courage and strength to forgive whoever you are holding unforgiveness towards.