Mark 11:15-19

Intro:

Developmental Questions: What are you expecting to get out of Church? What would the perfect church look like to you? What do you want church to be like?

Jesus entered Jerusalem as king riding on a donkey’s colt like Solomon himself. The people are even shouting the nationalistic and patriotic phrase Hosanna which means “God save us”. waving palm branches and taking over the city in a parade. It is near passover which is one of the most patriotic times of the year for the people of Isreal. A time to celebrate the founding of their nation and new beginnings. Where did this joyful patriotic procession end? It ended in the temple verse 11.

The Temple was the one piece of ground left in Isreal that the Romans had no control over. The last little bit of the autonomous state of Isreal. They even had their own coinage that was circulated in the Temple as we will see in a moment.

It would make sense that this is where Jesus would begin expanding the Kingdom from. Retake the nation from here as the Messiah the son of David.

David was the one who 1st to conquer this city for the nation of Isreal in the first place. When Jesus came to the temple on that Donkey it was like “We are seeing prophecy unfold before our eyes!”

Connect to Present day: They were a lot like us. We have expectations about what a church should be … they had expectations about what the temple should be (the last little strip Isreal that the Gentiles had no control over.) and what Jesus should be.

Here in verse 11 we are told that Jesus looked over everything in the temple…and left.... its so anticlimactic it like something is wrong.

What might he have seen? What could have led Him to look around at everything and do nothing? Did He see something He did not like?

In verse 15 we are told about Jesus’ reaction to what He saw.

because the very first thing He does when He comes back into the Temple is flip over tables and throw people out. In fact this was done so forcefully that Make used the word ἐκβάλλω to describe what Jesus is doing. The is the same word Make uses in other placed to describe Jesus and the 12 casting out demons. He cast this people out of the temple like he cast out demons.

Object lesson: Flip a real table in the sanctuary

Talk about the coins that would have flown everywhere…

Can you imagine if they had network T.V. back then....This just in tonight at 5. A man on a mission Jesus hold what appears to be a mostly peaceful protest in the Temple.

At any rate it appears that Jesus did not like what He saw. I would even say Jesus was disturbed by what He saw. Jesus was not happy with what was taking place in the temple.

Why did Jesus consider this to be wrong?

1st Jesus was coming to be our sacrifice so he was coming to be the Temple and this was a demonstration of just how broken the Temple system was.

But the answer to this question is also bound up in what Jesus taught them. Look at verse 17 it says that Jesus taught them.

Btw Jesus used this moment where He disciplines the people in Temple as a teaching moment. Good parents coaches, and bosses use discipline as a teaching moment.

In verse 17 it says that He was teaching them. what does He teach them?

What Jesus taught them is very important because it is only recorded in Mark. The other gospels don’t give us this statement but Mark does.

"My house shall be called a house a prayer for all people."

Isaiah 56:7 CSB

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.”

Mark 11:17 (TNTC Mk): The Scripture quoted by Jesus is Isaiah 56:7, telling how foreign proselytes will one day be welcomed to the temple. It is noteworthy that Jesus here quotes only the clause in Isaiah about prayer, and omits that about offering sacrifice, for he himself was soon to be the sacrifice that would unite Jew and non-Jew in one.

This makes more sense when you look at a picture of the temple and a picture of Jerusalem.

But more than that He calls the Temple a den of thieves. Those are not words you use in church. Can you image if I came in here and said “KBC you are a den of thieves” That would have been a great way for me to candidate my first Sunday. Do you think I would have got the job?

Why would He use such a strong word?

first look at what they are selling. What does that tell us about what might be going on here? Pigeons are what poor people sacrificed. They were quite possibly taking advantage of poor people. Jesus’ description of the temple as a den of robbers is an allusion to Jeremiah 7:11, where the prophet asks: “Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you?” For Jeremiah the robbery in question had nothing to do with the purchase of sacrificial animals or inflated exchange rates. The leaders of Jerusalem whom Jeremiah denounced were guilty of oppressing foreigners and widows and orphans, shedding innocent blood and following other gods. Their sin was twofold: they were robbing the people of justice, and they were robbing God of true worship.

Jesus was disturbed because He felt that they were rob His Father of worship by creating barriers to worship.

What do you want church to be? Well maybe we should first ask what did they want Jesus to be?

They thought Jesus was coming to overthrow the Romans instead He is overthrowing tables in the temple.

They thought He was going to make war on the Roman and He seems to be making war on the Temple.

He is displeased with the current state of worship much more than the occupancy of the Romans over the nation. It could be said that he is displeased that the nation into which He was born is limiting the Roman's access to the Temple. They where missing an opportunity to have the Romans worship God.

Jesus was far more concerned with the state of Worship in the Temple than He was with the Romans having rule over the city of Jerusalem.

Application:

What tables would Jesus flip over at Kearney Bible Church? We think of the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem as the beginning of holy week, the beginning of the end of his earthly life. And yet, it is also the beginning of judgment. Those who will not accept Jesus as Lord and king will be judged by him.

Hebrews 9:27 CSB

And just as it is appointed for people to die once—and after this, judgment—

Is this a passage about why you should not put a pop machine on church property?

Application: A house of prayer for the Gentiles. = Church is about reaching people that we don't think can be reached. People who are not like us.

It is about not having anything here at KBC that would hinder unbelievers from coming to know and worship God with us.

We need to get out and do some evangelism to that neighborhood over there.

Hint to next week: Was Jesus purifying the temple or is He doing something else here? Come back next week to hear the rest of the story.

I asked at the start of the sermon: What are you expecting to get out of Church? What would the perfect church look like to you? What do you want church to be like?

I hope you see now that we should change those questions to:

What does Jesus expect me to get out of Church or do for the Church?

What would a perfect church look like to Jesus?

What does Jesus want Kearney Bible Church to look like?

It is interesting because Jesus came to the temple. But really He was not coming to the temple He was coming to be the Temple. He was coming to be our Temple.

Jesus is our temple but we are His Church and because we are His church we do things His way not our way.

He is the temple and we are His church.