The Beggining of The End

Opening:

story

Several years ago at a passion play an incident took place during Jesus carrying the cross. A man in the audience was heckling the character playing Jesus, throwing out jeers, taunts and dares. Finally the character could no longer tolerate the heckler, he dropped the cross and went over and punched out the man. The director was aghast and after the play pulled the actor aside and told him in no uncertain terms was he ever to do that again. But the next night the same heckler was back and again the same thing, Jesus this time had to be restrained. The director called the actor in and gave him an ultimatum of either quitting or keeping his composure. The young actor assured the director he would keep himself under control. The third night, the heckler was present again and taunted even stronger than the two previous nights. The man playing Jesus rose to his full stature, gritted his teeth and told the heckler, "I’ll see you right after the resurrection."

Intro

The Real King (11:1–11)

Jesus requests a colt (11:1–6)

The triumphal entry into Jerusalem (11:7–10)

Hosanna - Save Now

He who Comes- Messianic euphemism

Davids Kingdom - Heir to Davids throne

Jesus looks at the temple (11:11)

2. The Real Tree (11:12–22)

Jesus curses a fig tree (11:12–14)

True Worship and True Fruit (11:12–22))

The fig tree had long been a symbol of Israel’s peace and security

Jesus curse on the tree means Israel will no longer be the main tool to accomplish God’s purpose- ie. Gentiles.

Jesus purges the temple (11:15–19)

wrongful use of the offerings

Jesus wouldn’t allow passers by to use the temple for anything but holy worship

Jesus quotes from Is. 56:7 & Jer. 7:11. (the rest of Jer. are of the destruction of Solomon’s temple)

All Nations- Jesus means the gentiles - the outer courts where they were allowed to worship had been taken over by the greedy money changers

Den of robbers - two fold meaning

The dead fig tree (11:20–22)

peter marvels at the quickness of the destruction

roots- means total destruction

Jesus parable here was clear- just like the misleading fig tree, the nations religious system(tithes, prayer, fasting) left out the real fruit of change

3. The Real Faith(11:23–26)

not meant for us to move literal mountains, but that our prayers can overcome great difficulties.

true prayer requires true faith

our prayer is not about size, but about strength, not how long or pretty, but about how much faith we have.

forgive to be forgiven

4. The Real Authority (11:27–33)

The Sanhedrin questions Jesus’ authority (11:27–28)

the sanhedrin (the ruling body of Judaism)- chief priests, scribes, and elders

They were in charge of the temple, what authority did Jesus have to cleanse the temple

Jesus’ counter question (11:29–30)

Jesus question show his higher authority

John the baptist- claimed Jesus has the messiah - That’s Jesus authority

The Answer

“We don’t know” (11:31–32)

They knew the truth but had be come so lukewarm

Just like the church of Laodicea

Jesus refuses to answer (11:33)