Sermon Tone Analysis

Good morning rivertree.

It is a real joy to be with you today.

If you are watching online, at our cove campus or here with me at the downtown campus this morning I want to invite you to go ahead and open your Bibles to Mark chapter 11 and we are goign to start in verse 15 in a moment.

This morning we are going to continue our series the light has come.

Over the past few weeks Zach, Ross and Josh have been walking us through this series

esus came as a king ushering in a kingdom.

In doing so, He proclaims the Good News of the Gospel.

Yet, this news isn’t good news for sin, for death, and for condemnation.

His coming then causes something deeper than just friction.

It is the cosmic battle we see in Revelation 12 and then we glimpse this cosmic battle when He takes on flesh and walks amongst us.

At His most vulnerable, a king tries to have Him killed.

Why?

Because Herod doesn’t understand his desperate need for someone to heal his bankrupt heart.

Jesus came for Herod, Jesus came for all people.

Herod wanted nothing to do with it because he was content with his lust for power.

Saying yes to The Gospel means we say yes to our nature as bankrupt and in need of saving.

Herold’s heart was hard.

We then see several moments throughout Jesus’ ministry where this battle/war continues to rage.

As Joshua reminded us last week .His hometown, those that knew Him for 30 years reject Him.

and now this morning we move from the unseen cosmic battle in the heavens, from the earthly king commuting infanticide, From those who knew Jesus from the time he was a child and rejected him, To the epi center of the battle on earth.

Jerusalem.

Bottom line: The heart of the war was a war for the heart

The first 5 works of verse 15 lead us into the heart of the war.

Jesus and his disciples had come to Jerusalem.

That ancient epic city.

And in Jesus day Jerusalem was marvouls.

It was a fortified city.

It was a world class city

and Jesus had entered the city.

The king had come to his city.

And as he entered the city he rode on a donkey to fulfill the ancient prophecy in Zachariah 9

and has he enters the city he knows he is entering the city to die.

This would be his trumphimply entry

This would be the lamb of God coming to die.

He would be met with so much fan fare.

People screaming save us, please save us.

The people had made up there minds the long awaited messiah had come.

And his entry into Jerusalm takes place at the beginning of the pasover week.

The city must have felt so alive.

People from everywhere ready to celebrate the passover.

This part of our text takes place after his trumphila entry.

He has left and gone to bethany and nbow has journeyed back into the city

Passover crowds had filled the city.

flowing up the steps of the court of the gentiles.

Lambs where being sold and offered.

To give you an idea on how much was happening one historian Josephus said in A.d 65 around 255,600 lambs were offred

so that would mean around 2.7 million people would have celbrated the passover that year.

As as Jesus entered the city he would have seen a real tradgy taking place in the temple courts.

One which would igninte a passion and angry in his heart rarely seen.

People where using the court of the gentiles the outer court as a short cut.

The temple which had been holy ground since Solomon had finished the dedicaiton was know a place that was being desecrated.

No longer where the priest kneling praying to see the glory of the Lord descend on the temple taking place.

No goods were bieng exchanged.

Sacrifices sold

A large scale of commerical operations taking place.

It might be hard for us to imagine this completly.

I’ll illustrate it for you this way.

A few months ago I went to floernce italy.

As i was there I walked through an amaizng city.

People everywhere.

Coffee everywehere, food everyone.

and right outside of one of there most historic churches was a market.

It sold all sorts of goods but mainly leather.

And it was overwhelming.

Even for someone like me who is part italin and likes noise

as I walked through the streets on either side of me there was someone asking me if I wanted to buy something, men from banglisdesh all looking at me and telling me they had a very speical deal just for me.

When I challenged them and said that’s what the last guy said they said mine is better.

At one point they took me into a shop and tried to make something for me on the spot.

and I wonder if this is what the temple felt like in the days of Jesus.

Maybe you have had a simalr expierence whre you have been in a market, or a country where they barter, or even the mall hallways you know what this feels like

and it’s in the middle of this Jesus has come to once again wage his war.

400 years earlier Malachi had told the people what was going to happen when the king comes.

when the messiah comes we see that he is like fullers soap.

Now this seems weird to us today.

There's not worship songs being written about the fact that Jesus is like fullers soap.

When I read that in my bible I had to ask the question: Is fullers a brand of soap and where can I get this soap?

But after further study here's what I learned.

Soap like we have today wasn't invited at the time this was written.

This is almost more liking a bleaching substance.

Something that was a solution made from running water through vegetable ash provided a simple detergent.

The picture is giving us is a spiritual cleansing.

But the people could not cleans themselves.

If the people themselves attempt to ‘wash the evil from their hearts’ (Jer.

4:14), they will not be successful.

‘ “Although you wash yourself with soda and use an abundance of soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me,” declares the Sovereign Lord’ (Jer.

2:22).

They would need someone to cleanse them.

They would need someone who was powerful enough to do this.

This is what Jesus was able to accomplish because of his work on the cross.

The hymn writer put it this way

What can wash away my sin?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus;

What can make me whole again?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Oh! precious is the flow

That makes me white as snow;

No other fount I know,

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Then in verse 3 we see how this would take place.

He was going to provide considerable care for his people as he beginning to mold them....He is not in a rush.

He is going to sit and take the time to purify his people.