That's Mark chapter 11. We're going to read from verse 11 to the end of the chapter.
Let's hear God's word together.
Jesus entered Jerusalem and went to the temple.
He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.
The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry.
Seeing in the distance a fig tree and leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit.
When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs.
Then he said to the tree, may no one ever eat fruit from you again.
And his disciples heard him say it.
On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling there.
He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves.
I would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts.
And as he taught them, he said, is it not written, my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations, but you have made it a den of robbers.
The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.
When evening came, they went out of the city.
In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots.
Peter remembered and said to Jesus, Rabbi, look, the fig tree you cursed has withered.
Have faith in God, Jesus answered.
I tell you the truth.
They arrived again in Jerusalem.
And while Jesus was walking in the temple courts, the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders came to him.
By what authority are you doing these things, they asked.
And who gave you authority to do this?
Jesus replied, I will ask you one question.
Answer me and I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things.
John's baptism.
Was it from heaven or from men?
Tell me.
They discussed it among themselves and said, if we say from heaven, he will ask, then why didn't you believe him?
But if we say from men?
They feared the people.
For everyone held that John really was a prophet.
So they answered Jesus, we don't know.
Jesus said, neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.
We are continuing to follow Jesus' journey to the cross.
Here is Jesus, the king.
The king who comes with authority.
And we're going to see that he uses his authority both to confront some and to comfort others.
Just as we begin, we probably recognize that questions of identity and authority sometimes go together.
Maybe you remember using words like these, who are you, to tell me what to do.
Perhaps you've heard them spoken to you by somebody else.
Well, back in 2017, those very same words were uttered in a court down in England in Canterbury.
An angry defendant was in the court and he was scuffling with some security guards.
And he was in the middle of an angry tirade.
And the judge asked him to be quiet and show order in court.
And the man responded, who are you to tell me what to do?
The judge's response was this, I'm the judge and I am tasked with maintaining the dignity in court.
And he ended up in jail for two weeks.
Recognizing the authority of a person can be very important.
What we see in the Pharisees and the religious leaders is that they often use this kind of, who are you, language.
Who do you think you are, Jesus?
Jesus, verse 28, by what authority are you doing these things?
One of the reasons Mark writes his gospel, one of the themes that keeps coming through in the words of Jesus,
is that he is the one who is from heaven.
Mark begins, this is the gospel about the Son of God.
And therefore, he has absolute authority.
And so we're going to see how Jesus uses this authority, first of all, in confronting the false worship in the temple.
And then to bring some words of comfort.
So first thing, Jesus can use his authority to confront us.
Look at verse 11.
Here we see Jesus entering Jerusalem and journeying to the temple.
Now, lots of people at this time of the year were journeying as pilgrims.
It was time for the Passover feast.
Jesus isn't like all the other pilgrims.
He's coming as the Lord of the temple, coming to inspect it.
And what Jesus is going to do is he is going to use his authority to confront those in charge in the temple for robbing God.
And we're going to hear him confront us about robbing God.
So he arrives in the temple.
It's late.
He goes back out to Beth.
And then he comes back in the next day.
And as he's on his way, verses 12 to 14, we see Jesus and this encounter with the fig tree.
And we get a parable of the fig tree.
What's going on here?
As Jesus sees this fig tree with leaves, but there's no fruit, and he curses it.
He's trying to make a point about the temple in Jerusalem.
Here is a fig tree that flatters to deceive.
Here is a fig tree that looks good, but fails to deliver.
And so Jesus curses it.
Verse 14, may no one never eat fruit from you again,
in order to make a powerful point about the temple that he's about to revisit.
Some things look good, but they flattered to deceive.
This week in the news, there was the story of the new Samsung folding phone.
I don't know if you saw the reports.
This really expensive, £1,800 for a phone that has a folding screen.
Well, a number of reviewers were given it, and a number of those reviewers smashed said folding phone.
So poor Samsung are left with something that looks great,
but is fundamentally flawed.
And they're back to the drawing board.
Well, something much more serious is happening here as Jesus enters the temple.
Jesus entered the temple, verse 15, and began driving out those who were buying and selling.
He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves.
This temple that looked glorious on the outside, on the inside,
had become little more than a marketplace.
Trading in items for sacrifice.
Here is a people who are going through the motions of worship,
but their hearts were far from God.
An accusation that Jesus had leveled against them previously.
Jesus, in verse 16, actually describes the people that he meets
as those who have turned the temple, verse 17, into a den of robbers.
And he borrows that language from Jeremiah chapter 7.
In Jeremiah's day, there were people in Israel who were murdering,
who were oppressing the poor, who were worshipping false idols.
But they'd still turn up at the temple on the Sabbath day,
and they'd still bring their offerings, and they'd presume that they were right with God.
And God sent Jeremiah to expose the folly of their hearts then,
and Jesus is exposing the folly of religiosity now.
Like the fig tree, there was no fruit of righteousness.
In the temple, the worship was dead.
Inside, though outside, the building looked great.
So bad is it that they're even preventing other nations from worshipping.
For the sake of money and profit,
they've turned the part of the temple that was,
so that non-Jewish people could come and worship God.
That had now become the prime marketplace,
denying people access to the worship of God.
So how does Jesus respond?
Well, Jesus confronted this abuse of the temple.
Jesus comes as the Lord of the temple to clear it out,
to drive out those who are robbing God of his glory.
To deliver the same curse that came on the fig tree.
If you don't change, if there's no repentance,
then the same will happen to this temple
as happened to the fig tree,
which happened just 30 or so years later.
The people were robbing God of honour,
and Jesus comes as one who has great zeal
for the honour of God.
And so he uses his authority as God's king
to confront this abuse.
This isn't just a historic issue.
Jesus' authority, Jesus' words, confront us too.
Some of the guys in this church
are doing a thing called the spiritual decathlon,
which doesn't involve any physical exercise.
It's about spiritual exercises.
And one of the things that that's trying to hammer home
in the early days is that spiritually,
it's so very easy for us to be short-sighted.
It's so very easy for us to find our joy in lesser things,
to be satisfied when we have a career that we enjoy,
a family that we enjoy,
sufficient wealth or education to make life comfortable.
We can easily lose sight and be blinded
to the greater glory of Jesus,
that our hearts can be content,
so long as we have money in our wallet
and a smartphone in our pocket
and a few friends to spend time with.
We can be guilty of robbing God of his honor
and his glory when our hearts run to other things
rather than to the living God.
How do we fix that kind of blaming?
I think it's as we look, meditate on
what God has done for us in Jesus.
Remember, this is Jesus on his journey to the cross.
It's as we remember the love and the sacrifice of Jesus,
that's what melts our hearts,
that's what causes us to have true joy
when we understand that God has done all this for us
so that we might know him
and have eternal life with him.
So just as it was for the people then,
we need to be careful that we are not robbing God.
There's another way that Jesus uses his authority
to confront the people then and to confront us.
That's in verse 27 to 33.
There's the danger about rejecting Jesus himself.
So Jesus has just cleared out the temple.
He just cleansed the temple out of concern for God's glory.
But the chief priests and the teachers of the law
came to him.
Verse 28,
By what authority are you doing these things?
Who gave you the authority to do them?
So to clear the temple required God's authority.
This was a well-established pattern
that came from the religious leaders
that you could buy and sell
and you could trade in the temple courts.
And they're wondering,
well, who are you, Jesus?
To break up what's been a long-established pattern.
Ultimately, the religious leaders
don't see Jesus as the Son of God.
They don't see Jesus as God's Christ.
And so they don't recognize
that his word should have any weight over theirs.
And that way, they're very like a man
ignoring the honor and position
of a judge in his own court.
It's the height of pride and folly
that we see from these men.
So they challenged Jesus' authority
and Jesus uses a question of his own
to challenge them.
In verse 29,
I will ask you one question.
The question, John's baptism,
was it from heaven or was it from men?
What's Jesus doing here?
Jesus is tying his own authority
and his own mission to that of John the Baptist.
What did John the Baptist come to do?
John came to announce,
here is the time to repent.
Here is the time to get ready
for God's promised king.
He is coming.
The kingdom of God is near.
And then as Jesus arrived on the scene,
John the Baptist announced him
as the Lamb of God
who takes away the sin of the world.
John who said,
I must become less
so that he must become great.
The religious leaders are left
in a difficult position.
They don't want to deny
that John came from heaven
because the people won't put up with it.
They don't want to say from men.
The people will get really upset
if he's from heaven.
Why didn't the people listen
to John the Baptist?
So they're left in a quandary
and they're unable to do anything.
They value their position over truth.
So they won't answer.
They don't answer.
But the result for them
is that they are unwilling to accept John
and they were unwilling to accept Jesus.
And so like that fig tree,
they stand under the curse of God
unless they are willing to repent.
Jesus is too important a figure
to ignore.
There is this tension in Jesus' journey
to Jerusalem and the cross
about his identity.
Who is Jesus?
Will the people trust in him?
Will they see that he is the one
who is sent from heaven
in order to save them?
How does Jesus' authority
confront us on that issue?
Well, it's the same, isn't it?
We still all have to reckon
with the identity of Jesus.
Who do we say Jesus is?
We need to make a decision
on his identity
because when we read the Gospels
for any length of time,
we discover that he is just too important.
His claims are too big
that we can simply put him to one side
as someone of marginal importance.
Either he's telling the truth,
in which case we need to listen
as he talks about being the son of God
and the only savior,
the only way to know God,
or we can call him a liar,
but we cannot remain apathetic.
Last week was Easter Sunday.
Easter Sunday, we were remembering
that Jesus is the one
who claimed that he would die
and then claimed that he would be raised to life.
And then we thought about the empty tomb.
We thought about the fact
that there was no dead body.
The fact that there were numerous eyewitnesses
to the risen Lord Jesus.
We saw the transformed life of his followers,
all pointing to Jesus' ultimate authority.
So if we have questions today
about the identity of Jesus,
you're not sure who this man is,
please read the Gospels.
Discover for yourself his compassion,
his mercy, and his love.
Hear his words of truth
that are unlike any other.
See his sacrifice
and hear the promise of forgiveness
forgiveness and eternal life
that comes from him.
Because what we see in the story
of the religious leaders
is that to reject Jesus
is to be on the outside of the kingdom.
It doesn't matter how religious they were
because they wanted nothing to do with Jesus.
They were outside of God's kingdom.
And so we don't want to be in that place.
Rather, we want to lovingly hear,
hear this loving invitation of Jesus,
who welcomes us in to God's kingdom,
to God's family,
through trusting in him.
So Jesus used his authority to confront,
but he also uses his authority
to comfort us.
The first way he does this
is in verse 17,
where he gives us this reminder
that he provides our way
to know and enjoy God.
As Jesus is clearing the temple,
driving out the money changers,
he says,
is it not written,
my house will be called
a house of prayer for all nations.
What's happened in the temple
is it's now a million miles away
from God's original intention,
from the temple,
and for the people of Israel.
From the very beginning,
as God decided to establish
a people for his own glory,
and he called Abraham,
he told Abraham that
one of your seed will be a blessing
to the nations.
Abraham's family was to be a blessing
to the nations.
The nation of Israel
in the Old Testament
was to function as a light
to the nations.
Light as opposed to darkness,
revealing the truth about God,
again, to be a blessing
to the surrounding nations.
That Isaiah 56
that Jesus is quoting from here
of verse 17.
It is a gospel message of hope
for those who would be considered
outsiders to God's kingdom,
including foreign nations.
So Jesus is reminding the people
that God's original intention
for his redeeming purposes
is that he would use Israel
to draw people in.
Jesus comes as the true Israel
to draw all nations
to himself.
So as Jesus is confronting some
about abuse in the temple,
he's also comforting others.
How?
Because the goal of temple clearing
is so that the Gentiles
will be able to worship God
at Passover.
Previously, there's no access
because there's no room
because there's all these animals
and things getting sold.
But now there's space,
so now non-Jewish people
can come and can worship God.
Jesus creates the way
for us to know God.
And remember,
this is all happening
at the time of Passover.
Passover,
when the people had been slaves
in Egypt
and God had announced
that he was going to deliver them
and give them freedom
so that they might become
his people.
And God's people, Israel,
were told,
in order to escape
the judgment of God
that would fall on Egypt,
they had to sacrifice
the Passover lamb.
God's judgment
passed over their houses
and their families.
And what does Jesus come to do?
Jesus comes to die
at Passover,
to be the true Passover lamb,
the one who dies
in our place
so that the judgment
of God against our sin
might pass over us
and fall on him.
And now this is open,
not just to Jewish people,
now this is open
to all of the nations
because of Jesus.
Jesus who comes
into the world
not just to be
the true Passover lamb,
also to be the true temple.
What was the temple?
The temple was the place
where people could come
to meet with God,
to worship God.
And Jesus announces
that he is
now the way
to know
and to meet
with God.
God.
I was out
at the start of the week
having a walk
with a friend
and he was asking me,
why doesn't your church
do confession
like the Catholic church does?
And it gave me a chance
to talk about the fact
that Jesus
gives us something special.
Jesus gives us
direct access
to God.
The fact that we don't
need a priest
because Jesus has come
to be the great high priest.
We don't need
intermediaries
because now
we have access
to God
in heaven.
So Jesus has opened
up this way
for anybody
to know
and enjoy
God.
So how can we respond
to this truth?
Well, since Jesus
has come
as the true temple,
announcing judgment
on a corrupted temple,
let's seek
to lay aside
our idols,
those things
that keep us
from worshiping
and valuing God
above all else.
Let's repent
of that
and seek
to give our hearts
and our worship
over to him.
And let's enjoy
the access
that we have
to the one true God.
Sometimes we take
that for granted
or we forget
the privilege
that we have.
We've got an incredible
right of access
through Jesus.
And since Jesus
is our sacrifice,
since he has dealt
once for all
with our sins
of our faith
is in him,
then we can be honest
with him
about the fact
that we are
unclean
and impure,
that we do sin,
that we do fail,
and we trust
that Jesus
gives cleansing
and so we accept
that washing.
And there's also
a responsibility,
I think,
for us as a church
in light of this
to be open
and welcoming,
to recognize
that just as God's desire
is that the nations
would be brought in
to worship,
so as a church,
as a community
of God's people,
we ought to be open
and welcoming
to those
who want to hear
the truth for themselves,
to be careful
not to put barriers
in the way,
that we want to both
invite people in
but we also want
to go out
with the good news
of Jesus,
to be sending
and supporting people
both in local mission
and in global mission.
There's a second way
that Jesus uses
his authority
to comfort us,
not just in giving us
access,
wonderful access
to know and enjoy God,
but also he gives us
the gift of prayer,
verse 22 to 25,
and not just any prayer.
By faith,
we have this gift
of mountain-moving prayer.
Have faith in God,
Jesus answered.
I tell you the truth.
If anyone says
to this mountain,
go throw yourself
into the sea
and does not doubt
in his heart
but believes
that what he says
will happen,
it will be done for him.
Jesus is calling us
to confidence
confident,
faith-filled prayer,
confident in the
faithfulness of God,
confident in the
goodness of God,
confident in the
power of God.
Now we see some
examples of this
all the way
through the Bible.
We can maybe think
of when Peter
was in prison
in the book of Acts
and the church
gathered to pray
earnestly to God
for Peter's release.
What happened?
At midnight,
an angel came,
the chains were loosed,
the door was opened
and Peter walked free.
Or we can think
about Jairus
asking Jesus
to come and heal
and save his daughter
so she might live.
It was a prayer
of faith,
no other hope
other than hoping
in Jesus.
Over Easter weekend,
we were thinking
about the thief
on the cross.
His was a prayer,
a cry of faith.
Lord, remember me
when you come
into your kingdom
and Jesus promised
today you'll be
with me in paradise.
Maybe you like to read
Christian biographies,
the likes of George Mueller
who set up
Barnardo's,
the orphanages,
and how so often
in the story
of that movement
he had to pray
for food for the next day
or funds were empty,
people needed to be paid,
buildings needed
to be looked at,
and they would pray
for funds
and God always provided.
There are lots of examples
of faith-fueled prayer.
And we have a promise
from Jesus
that this kind of prayer
and this kind of access
to God's power
is ours.
One of the reasons
why the Lord's prayer
begins with a focus on God,
you know,
begins,
our Father in heaven,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
is it reminds us
who we are speaking to.
And as we remember
who we are speaking with,
the Lord of the universe,
the creator and sustainer
of all things,
and that increases
our faith
in the one
we are making
our appeal to,
it strengthens
our asking.
And so we're called
to have faith,
Jesus said,
have faith in God,
get to know God
and his character,
and that will strengthen
our resolve
to pray.
So Jesus gives us
this gift of prayer
that we have access
to God as Father,
and he says there are
two things that this
effective prayer needs.
It needs, first of all,
faith,
but also in verse 25,
it needs forgiveness.
When you stand praying,
if you hold anything
against anyone,
forgive him
so that your Father
in heaven may forgive you
your sins.
We need faith,
but we also need to be
willing to forgive
others.
Why is that important?
Last week,
I was watering the garden,
lovely sunny week,
last week.
So I was watering the garden,
but we haven't used
the hose for a while.
You may have discovered
this,
that sometimes there's
kinks that you find
in your hose,
or perhaps there's knots
if people have been
playing with it
a little bit too much.
What happens when
there's kinks
or there's knots
in your hose?
There's no water supply.
You turn the tap on
all you want,
but there's a blockage.
And Jesus is reminding us
that bitterness,
a lack of forgiveness,
an unwillingness
to be reconciled
to someone,
it is like that knot.
It's like that kink.
It's a barrier
to effective prayer.
And so Jesus is saying
we need to act fast
to untangle
those knots.
We need to seek
to be reconciled
so that our praying
might be effective.
Now,
how might this teaching
on prayer
change our lives?
Well,
doesn't it give us
a really positive incentive
to pray
when we remember
the access to God
that we have
and the power
that God has
and his willingness
to answer?
It helps us
to recognize
prayer isn't just
a duty,
it's also the great
blessing that we have
as God's people.
It was Martin Luther,
the great reformer,
who used to get up
super early to pray
and he said,
I'm too busy
not to pray.
It reminds us
to be dependent
on God,
it reminds us
to have faith
in God's provision,
in God's purposes.
Jesus' teaching
reminds us
to invite God in,
into our situation,
the big things
and the little things,
to invite God in,
not to be self-reliant,
but to remember
the gift of prayer,
to take opportunities
to pray
as a church,
in your home,
all through your day,
as families,
as friends.
A few weeks ago,
we looked at
the prayer of the man
whose boy
was possessed
by an evil spirit
and he prayed,
I do believe,
Jesus,
that you can help,
help my unbelief.
It's a prayer
that can be really
important for us
as we seek to have
the kind of effective
prayer life
that enjoys
relationship with God
and sees prayers answered
like Jesus is talking
about here.
So here is Jesus
on his journey
to the cross
and we're reminded
once again
that he is the king
with absolute authority.
How did he use
that authority?
Not like so many
other leaders.
He didn't use
that authority
to get rich.
He didn't use it
to exploit the weak.
He didn't use it
to make sure
that he could show
up power for himself.
Rather,
we find him again
deliberately going
on his journey
to the cross
so that people like us,
people who rob
God of his glory,
people who worship
the wrong thing,
people who have said
to him,
who are you
to tell me
what to do,
might be welcomed,
might be honoured,
might be forgiven
by God
when we place
our trust
in Jesus,
God's true king.