Clearing the Temple

Good morning, welcome to NHCC.

Please open Bibles to Mark 11.

Children’s Ministry Volunteers

Where we left off- Oscar- Jesus enters Jerusalem.

Remember the small details- Jesus enters the temple and looks around.

Passover- Massive amounts of people in and around the temple.

Foreshadowing- something is going to happen with the temple.

Now we come to Monday. What is Jesus going to do when He once again enters the Temple?

Read Mark 11:12-26- On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. 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. And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it. 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. And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. 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.” And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching. And when evening came they went out of the city. As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” 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. And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”

Pray.

Sometimes, the most apparent and easily accessed meaning of a text is not in fact the best or most complete meaning of the text.

How has this text been understood and applied?

This should be a narrative that we want to rightly and fully understand- Jesus is angry.

We must pay attention to the details of what Jesus said and how Mark recorded it.

1. Pay attention to the references.

In order to get the best possible explanation and application of our text, to see what Jesus is communicating both through His words and His actions, we need to pay close attention.

Early on, Jesus says, “is it not written...”

He is quoting something.

We must understand that these callbacks to the OT are meant to be understood in their OT context.

Ali and her notes doc.

A brief word is meant to draw attention back to the greater narrative that is found in the surrounding texts.

Conversation with Jacob- How helpful would it be to read three chapters every time we saw a reference to the OT?

Here, we have Jesus quoting two texts that He has put together in one statement.

Let’s see what the chosen texts are, and how their original context speaks to the situation that is found in the temple.

First, Isaiah 56:6-8- “And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant— these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” The Lord GOD, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares, “I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered.”

In Isaiah’s text, we find God’s vision for salvation.

While Israel always saw themselves as the only benefactors of God’s love, provision and protection, God, throughout all of the Scriptures, sought not only the nation of Israel but others as well.

This is what the ministry of Jesus has been about, if you’ve been paying attention. Jesus has been taking the outsiders and bringing them into His fold.

Remember the blind man in Jericho.

When Jesus entered the temple, the first area He would have come across was the court of the Gentiles. This was a place for those who were not Jewish to still come and seek after the one true God.

And the Jews turned it into a marketplace. The religious leaders were making money off of their closing the courts to the Gentiles.

Can you imagine trying to pray, trying to have any sense of worship with such distraction going on.

The Jews were meant to be loving and concerned for the salvation of the nations. They had no concern for the Gentiles.

This is one of the things that Jesus was upset about- where is your concern for the lost?

This applies to us today. Our lives are meant to be blessings to those who do not know Jesus Christ.

What would Jesus flip over in our own lives? Where are we committed to our own desires and goals over and against the needs of those who have never known or loved Jesus Christ?

Charles Spurgeon- “If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with out arms wrapped about their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go unwarned and unprayed for.”

Next, Jeremiah 7:9-11- Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations? Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the LORD.

God is speaking out against the people of Israel believing themselves to be safe because of their religious practices.

Consider the phrase “den of robbers.”

This is the story of many of the prophetic books of the OT- your sacrifices do not reflect a contrite or obedient heart.

God tells the Israelites to knock it off with the sacrifices, with the religious rituals.

How does this speak to my heart? I better be aware of my life outside of this worship gathering. When we gather for worship, this is meant to be a place of repentance, in order to keep us from becoming hypocritical.

Collectively, we better make sure that this is a place where we feel safe as sinners to repent, but not safe as sinners to continue in a life of sin.

When we gather for community worship, we must always call each of us to repentance and obedience.

2. Pay attention to the bookends.

Interesting story about Jesus cursing a tree that had no fruit to feed Him.

Difficulty of the text- Jesus curses a harmless tree, bringing death. Also, Jesus seems to react out of anger. But more is going on here.

There is a reason this episode surrounds the time in the temple- it shows the connection between the two, the fig tree and the temple.

So what is it that happens here?

Jesus sees a fig tree from far off, and though it is out of season, it is leafy, as though it would have fruit, even if not fully matured.

Because He is hungry, He searches the tree for any fruit but can find none.

Interestingly, once again Mark is drawing attention to the divinity of Jesus.

Jeremiah 8:13- When I would gather them, declares the LORD, there are no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree; even the leaves are withered, and what I gave them has passed away from them.”

In the OT, God searches the vine looking for figs, for fruit, yet finding none. Now, we see Jesus doing the same. In Jeremiah, the fig tree has withered and died. In Mark, Jesus curses the fig tree, causing it to wither and die.

Mark draws a direct connection between the God of the OT and Jesus. He is doing things that are described as God having done.

But moving on, once He sees its lack of production, He becomes angered by it and curses the tree, specifically stating that no one would ever again eat from it.

The next day, after having cleared the temple the day before, the disciples notice that the tree is completely dead, not just in the leaves, but all the way down to the root.

What had once looked full of promise has been completely destroyed, deemed ineffectual.

So what is happening here? Jesus is a prophet. He teaches just like the prophets of old, with object lessons.

The episode of the fig tree surrounds the temple narrative because the fig tree is the temple.

The temple would be described as being full of life, religious activity and vigor. And yet, Jesus sees through it all. When He looks for the fruit of godliness, He finds none.

The true life that Jesus is seeking is nowhere found in the activity of the temple. It’s all hypocritical.

3. Pay attention to the application.

Conversation about obedience to God, but it is rooted in faith IN God.

Not in the temple, not in religious effort, completely in faith in God.

Our faith is in Jesus Christ alone, and if it is found in anything else, we will find ourselves to be as dead as the cursed fig tree.