WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.000 Okay, so we're going to turn back for a little while to that. 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:08.000 Quite a difficult passage today, it has to be said. 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:10.759 Wouldn't it be one that I would naturally have chosen for a baptism? 00:00:10.759 --> 00:00:19.440 But I think we're going through this and it does ultimately very strongly point to the 00:00:19.440 --> 00:00:23.320 reality of the symbolism of baptism, which is great. 00:00:23.320 --> 00:00:32.960 Now, I think us Scots are often reputed for being cynical about other Scots who become 00:00:32.960 --> 00:00:36.120 famous, rich or successful. 00:00:36.120 --> 00:00:39.320 And we're reputed to be people who knock them down. 00:00:39.320 --> 00:00:45.120 We don't like someone who becomes famous and rich and successful in our context. 00:00:45.120 --> 00:00:48.920 Allegedly, anyway, that's what they say about us sometimes. 00:00:48.920 --> 00:00:52.400 And they do say that what we say is that we knew your father. 00:00:52.399 --> 00:00:57.039 And so it's a kind of thing where, you know, we know where you come from, so don't get 00:00:57.039 --> 00:01:01.640 too high and mighty in your fame and in your wealth because you're really just one of us. 00:01:01.640 --> 00:01:05.759 And whether that's true or not, I actually think it's probably not true. 00:01:05.759 --> 00:01:08.120 And if it is true, it's broader than just Scots. 00:01:08.120 --> 00:01:15.319 I think probably there's an innate envy and jealousy sometimes in the human heart. 00:01:15.319 --> 00:01:21.400 But we do see it that way and we see it as common in media circles, maybe particularly 00:01:21.400 --> 00:01:27.080 to hear about someone famous or wealthy or rich or a good worker who has fallen, whose 00:01:27.080 --> 00:01:30.560 guard has slipped, good people being caught out. 00:01:30.560 --> 00:01:32.760 And none better than ministers, of course. 00:01:32.760 --> 00:01:39.200 That's always the best people to catch out and to find a fault or an Achilles' heel 00:01:39.200 --> 00:01:40.200 in their lives. 00:01:40.200 --> 00:01:45.120 Now, I guess for many cynics of Jesus, I'm not sure if there'll be any here today who 00:01:45.120 --> 00:01:47.400 are very cynical of Jesus. 00:01:47.400 --> 00:01:52.880 And if you are, then, well, I'm really glad you're here anyway, of course, to hear about 00:01:52.880 --> 00:01:54.600 the message of the gospel. 00:01:54.600 --> 00:01:59.680 But even as Christians, we can look at a passage like this. 00:01:59.680 --> 00:02:03.719 But for a cynic especially, and they may look at this passage and think this passage appears 00:02:03.719 --> 00:02:10.360 very sweet indeed, because it exposes, it finally exposes Jesus. 00:02:10.360 --> 00:02:13.719 We see Him in a different light, don't we, in this passage. 00:02:13.719 --> 00:02:14.719 He's angry. 00:02:14.719 --> 00:02:17.159 You know what it is? 00:02:17.159 --> 00:02:19.919 When you're hungry, you get angry if you can't get food. 00:02:19.919 --> 00:02:26.120 And Jesus appears to be angry, and He takes out His hunger on this poor little fig tree, 00:02:26.120 --> 00:02:28.960 which He hopes to get some fruit from and doesn't. 00:02:28.960 --> 00:02:36.639 And He just judges it and curses it and shows a kind of vindictive spirit. 00:02:36.639 --> 00:02:38.960 And then He goes into the temple after that. 00:02:38.960 --> 00:02:44.319 And it seems to be that He loses His temper, His cool, His control as He goes round up, 00:02:44.319 --> 00:02:47.319 turning all the tables. 00:02:47.319 --> 00:02:51.759 Ah, so Jesus is really just like us all after all. 00:02:51.759 --> 00:02:58.359 Or if He is God, then He's revealed Himself as a bad temper deity, and it gives us an 00:02:58.359 --> 00:03:00.719 excuse not to trust in Him. 00:03:00.719 --> 00:03:03.560 Finally being exposed, Jesus in this passage. 00:03:03.560 --> 00:03:07.240 It's a difficult passage. 00:03:07.240 --> 00:03:09.479 And that's a very serious charge. 00:03:09.479 --> 00:03:15.000 I hope if you make that charge, you don't make it lightly, and I hope you're willing 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:17.759 to think through that charge. 00:03:17.759 --> 00:03:22.239 This passage does require a little bit of work, but I want you to be willing to come 00:03:22.239 --> 00:03:28.239 to it and allow God to speak beyond the surface for all of us. 00:03:28.239 --> 00:03:31.719 Because I think in the initial reading, we all find this passage quite difficult in many 00:03:31.719 --> 00:03:32.719 ways. 00:03:32.719 --> 00:03:34.159 But please remember the context. 00:03:34.159 --> 00:03:39.239 We've been looking at this section for a while, and we're now coming towards the 00:03:39.240 --> 00:03:41.680 Passion Week, the last week of Jesus. 00:03:41.680 --> 00:03:44.920 He's moving towards... 00:03:44.920 --> 00:03:46.680 He's in at the edges of Jerusalem. 00:03:46.680 --> 00:03:50.480 He's gone in and out of Jerusalem, and He knows that by the end of the week, He will 00:03:50.480 --> 00:03:51.480 be crucified. 00:03:51.480 --> 00:03:52.480 And He's predicted that. 00:03:52.480 --> 00:03:53.480 He's spoken about that. 00:03:53.480 --> 00:04:00.360 So there's real tension in the air, and it's a really focused time for Him. 00:04:00.360 --> 00:04:03.240 But it's really vital for us to think about what Jesus... 00:04:03.240 --> 00:04:06.600 I'm going to say some radical things here about this passage. 00:04:06.599 --> 00:04:13.159 Well, but firstly, can we notice a very important weverse that we didn't read? 00:04:13.159 --> 00:04:17.279 So we read from verse 12. 00:04:17.279 --> 00:04:21.800 But Corey last week read the passage, the triumph entry and preached on that. 00:04:21.800 --> 00:04:27.199 But the last verse there, verse 11, tells us that He entered Jerusalem and went into 00:04:27.199 --> 00:04:29.159 the temple. 00:04:29.159 --> 00:04:35.759 And when He had looked around at everything, as it was already, He went out to Bethany with 00:04:35.759 --> 00:04:36.839 the twelve. 00:04:36.839 --> 00:04:40.199 So He'd already scoped out the temple the night before. 00:04:40.199 --> 00:04:43.360 So bear that in mind. 00:04:43.360 --> 00:04:46.480 He knew exactly what was happening in the temple. 00:04:46.480 --> 00:04:50.879 This daily ritual of buying and selling, He would have seen the day before. 00:04:50.879 --> 00:04:51.879 He knew. 00:04:51.879 --> 00:04:52.879 It was late. 00:04:52.879 --> 00:04:56.039 So He went home, or He went to where He was staying. 00:04:56.039 --> 00:05:03.639 And then He knew that He had an important symbolic statement to make in the temple the next day. 00:05:03.639 --> 00:05:06.039 He saw everything that He was going on. 00:05:06.039 --> 00:05:08.039 He didn't miss anything. 00:05:08.039 --> 00:05:12.120 He'd been in the temple and He was going to go back to the temple. 00:05:12.120 --> 00:05:19.519 Now the temple in Jesus' day was the center for religious, but also for social and economic 00:05:19.519 --> 00:05:21.159 life of the Jewish people. 00:05:21.159 --> 00:05:27.479 It's a hugely significant and important building and all that it symbolized. 00:05:27.479 --> 00:05:32.919 And it was very much at this time, it was their security blanket, if we can call it that. 00:05:32.920 --> 00:05:37.680 See, as long as they had the temple and what they believed they had God's presence in the 00:05:37.680 --> 00:05:42.400 temple, in a sense they abused it and they reckoned they could live any way they like 00:05:42.400 --> 00:05:47.720 as long as they could just come back to the temple and find peace with God behind its 00:05:47.720 --> 00:05:48.720 walls. 00:05:48.720 --> 00:05:49.720 So they thought. 00:05:49.720 --> 00:05:53.240 It allowed them to do things because they thought they were the privileged people of 00:05:53.240 --> 00:05:57.840 God, that God was with them, that they could take God's word. 00:05:57.840 --> 00:06:01.560 They even took it in the religious leaders and they turned it upside down. 00:06:01.560 --> 00:06:08.720 And they abused what the temple was meant to signify, that place of humility and sacrificial, 00:06:08.720 --> 00:06:13.800 of sacrifices for sin and humble living and prayer. 00:06:13.800 --> 00:06:19.720 And they used it to exploit people. 00:06:19.720 --> 00:06:26.639 They exploited the sacrificial system itself, abusing it and exploiting the poor and eager 00:06:26.639 --> 00:06:32.240 to keep the religious and the political power to themselves. 00:06:32.240 --> 00:06:39.719 I mean, the verse in verse 17, where Jesus says, you've made my house a den of robbers, 00:06:39.719 --> 00:06:42.599 that comes from Jeremiah chapter 7. 00:06:42.599 --> 00:06:47.560 It's really worth going back and reading that because that really explains what God was 00:06:47.560 --> 00:06:52.360 thinking about the way they were abusing the temple at the time. 00:06:52.360 --> 00:06:54.479 They were basically living any old way they wanted. 00:06:54.480 --> 00:07:00.040 They were idolatrous, they were impure, they were... 00:07:00.040 --> 00:07:02.000 There was all kinds of things going on. 00:07:02.000 --> 00:07:07.040 And yet they said, the temple, the temple, the temple they cried out as if it would 00:07:07.040 --> 00:07:12.319 save them and as if they would be safe there because of what it stood for. 00:07:12.319 --> 00:07:16.680 And Jesus exposes that and said, you've made it a den of robbers. 00:07:16.680 --> 00:07:22.200 The very system that God had put in place that was meant to speak of God's holiness 00:07:22.199 --> 00:07:29.199 and expose their need of a Savior through the shedding of blood, that they were meant 00:07:29.199 --> 00:07:35.279 to come to humbly and prayerfully thinking forward to the Savior, the Messiah that God 00:07:35.279 --> 00:07:36.519 would send. 00:07:36.519 --> 00:07:39.240 It became something that they abused. 00:07:39.240 --> 00:07:44.079 It became a commercial venture, a power game. 00:07:44.079 --> 00:07:52.359 Ultimately, it became a place, a symbol of their independence from God in God's name, 00:07:52.359 --> 00:07:55.399 in His living room as it were. 00:07:55.399 --> 00:08:03.599 They were kind of sticking two fingers up at God in His own home. 00:08:03.599 --> 00:08:05.439 And that was brutal. 00:08:05.439 --> 00:08:09.240 And we need to remember that as we come to this section. 00:08:09.240 --> 00:08:14.280 Now, can we look just briefly at the structure of this section because what we've done in 00:08:14.280 --> 00:08:19.639 the past with Mark, we've seen that everything he does, everything he writes is very carefully 00:08:19.639 --> 00:08:26.240 measured and thought out and placed in the right way in order to get through a message. 00:08:26.240 --> 00:08:29.360 So what we have here is we have Jesus in the morning. 00:08:29.360 --> 00:08:33.240 He must have said to his disciples because they recognize and they say at them, or Mark 00:08:33.240 --> 00:08:36.000 records it, that Jesus said he was hungry. 00:08:36.000 --> 00:08:41.759 And so he goes to, as he's walking into Jerusalem, he sees a fig tree and there's no figs in 00:08:41.759 --> 00:08:42.759 it. 00:08:42.759 --> 00:08:43.759 It's not the season for figs. 00:08:43.759 --> 00:08:47.279 We'll come back to that a little bit. 00:08:47.279 --> 00:08:51.720 But he pronounces judgment on this fruitless fig tree. 00:08:51.720 --> 00:08:56.000 And then he goes into the temple and he sees, he knows what's happening in the temple and 00:08:56.000 --> 00:09:03.080 he turns all the tables upside down and he runs the money changers out and he begins to 00:09:03.080 --> 00:09:04.320 teach the people who are there. 00:09:04.320 --> 00:09:09.320 And in the Mark, in the Matthew account, we're told that he heals people as well at that 00:09:09.320 --> 00:09:11.120 time. 00:09:11.120 --> 00:09:14.680 Then when he comes back out and there's this kind of kifffal with the religious leaders 00:09:14.680 --> 00:09:19.800 who want him dead by this point, he goes out and as they're passing by, they see the fig 00:09:19.800 --> 00:09:21.800 tree is withered in Peter. 00:09:21.800 --> 00:09:24.960 He says, what's that fig tree that you cursed? 00:09:24.960 --> 00:09:27.480 It's dead from the roots. 00:09:27.480 --> 00:09:31.000 It's absolutely gone. 00:09:31.000 --> 00:09:42.120 And he then goes on to explain that from that picture about prayer and faith, which doesn't 00:09:42.120 --> 00:09:46.320 seem terribly connected, goes on to say, well, you know, you should live by faith. 00:09:46.320 --> 00:09:49.720 If you can tell this mountain to move, it will go into the heart of the sea. 00:09:49.720 --> 00:09:55.799 And then we have the Pharisees questioning by what authority he was doing these things. 00:09:55.799 --> 00:09:59.799 I'm not going to spend any time really on that except just at the very end. 00:09:59.799 --> 00:10:02.519 So what does this structure of it mean? 00:10:02.519 --> 00:10:03.519 What does it mean for us? 00:10:03.519 --> 00:10:06.919 Well, I'm going to say something that you might not have expected at this point in the 00:10:06.919 --> 00:10:13.279 sermon, which is that what happens in this account and the acts of Jesus with the fig 00:10:13.279 --> 00:10:21.199 tree and in the temple are symbolic acts which reveal, what do you think it reveals? 00:10:21.199 --> 00:10:24.919 It reveals unparalleled love. 00:10:24.919 --> 00:10:25.919 Okay? 00:10:25.919 --> 00:10:32.120 Now, you might not immediately think, well, wait a minute, that doesn't seem to connect. 00:10:32.120 --> 00:10:35.039 I hope you'll see that it does. 00:10:35.039 --> 00:10:36.039 Really? 00:10:36.039 --> 00:10:38.120 It's significant. 00:10:38.120 --> 00:10:43.479 This passage is significant for every human being who ever walked on this earth, including 00:10:43.479 --> 00:10:44.959 everyone here. 00:10:44.959 --> 00:10:45.959 Really? 00:10:45.959 --> 00:10:46.959 Surely not. 00:10:46.959 --> 00:10:50.399 This bizarre kind of side story in the gospels. 00:10:50.399 --> 00:10:56.240 I don't know any relation to my life as I go out to work tomorrow. 00:10:56.240 --> 00:11:01.240 Well, hopefully we'll see. 00:11:01.240 --> 00:11:06.319 Jesus, you see, he comes to this fig tree, having told his disciples he's hungry, and 00:11:06.319 --> 00:11:10.879 he comes to a fig tree that he knows is out of season. 00:11:10.879 --> 00:11:12.840 He knows it's not going to bear any fruit. 00:11:12.840 --> 00:11:19.039 He knows it's impossible that the fig tree at that time of year will bring him any fruit 00:11:19.039 --> 00:11:20.039 whatsoever. 00:11:20.039 --> 00:11:25.000 You know, we saw last week that he knew about the colt that was unwritten that he was going 00:11:25.000 --> 00:11:26.799 to have to ride on into... 00:11:26.799 --> 00:11:29.199 He knew these things. 00:11:29.199 --> 00:11:34.000 Christ was not stupid when it came to this reality. 00:11:34.000 --> 00:11:37.480 He wasn't found out. 00:11:37.480 --> 00:11:38.480 He didn't look at that fig tree. 00:11:38.480 --> 00:11:39.679 Oh, you're a wretched fig tree. 00:11:39.679 --> 00:11:40.679 You're not bearing any fruit. 00:11:40.679 --> 00:11:45.279 He knew absolutely that he wouldn't bear any fruit. 00:11:45.279 --> 00:11:48.000 He wasn't blindsided. 00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:52.240 But he made sure that the disciples heard this word of judgment on the fig tree, because 00:11:52.240 --> 00:11:55.799 there are really important sentences that he says. 00:11:55.799 --> 00:12:02.480 And then the next morning, they see the result of that judgment on the fig tree. 00:12:02.480 --> 00:12:04.399 Unbelievable. 00:12:04.399 --> 00:12:11.360 But in the middle of this fig tree sandwich, because of fig tree, and then there's the 00:12:11.360 --> 00:12:14.960 judgment on the fig tree that is seen by the disciples. 00:12:14.960 --> 00:12:19.759 And the middle of that is the temple story. 00:12:19.759 --> 00:12:24.400 And that immediately, in the way Mark writes, is saying, look, there's significance in what 00:12:24.400 --> 00:12:29.320 Jesus did with the fig tree that relates to what he did in the temple. 00:12:29.320 --> 00:12:30.400 And that's very important. 00:12:30.400 --> 00:12:36.840 He goes to the temple and Mark wants us to see the significance of this temple story 00:12:36.840 --> 00:12:45.560 being sandwiched between the accounts of the fig tree, because the dead fig tree, the 00:12:45.560 --> 00:12:53.440 judgment on the fig tree is the same judgment that God was bringing on this man-centered, 00:12:53.440 --> 00:12:59.480 self-centered, empty religion that was being worked out in the temple. 00:12:59.480 --> 00:13:06.200 Because the system by this stage was representing man's efforts, human beings' efforts to ignore 00:13:06.200 --> 00:13:14.200 to hoodwink and to distort God and His person and His love and His truth and His revelation 00:13:14.200 --> 00:13:17.960 of Himself that He had given in the Old Testament. 00:13:17.960 --> 00:13:22.759 And He was pointing out that He was coming to destroy that. 00:13:22.759 --> 00:13:29.840 He was coming to bring the way back to God that the temple, even the temple as it was 00:13:29.840 --> 00:13:36.519 designed, could never do, but especially the temple as they abused it, could never do. 00:13:36.519 --> 00:13:40.759 It was God's dwelling place on earth, remember in the Holy of Holies, that place that they 00:13:40.759 --> 00:13:46.200 could only come to by sacrifice, but yet they were ignoring Him and they were abusing the 00:13:46.200 --> 00:13:47.840 whole system. 00:13:47.840 --> 00:13:55.360 It could never be the answer to heal and to redeem and to give humanity hope and to break 00:13:55.360 --> 00:14:02.000 the judgment of death that every single living soul has ever faced. 00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:09.800 So Christ comes in and you know, it doesn't say, you know, it often says, or we think 00:14:09.800 --> 00:14:13.120 that Jesus in anger up turns the table. 00:14:13.120 --> 00:14:15.720 It doesn't say that, it never says that. 00:14:15.720 --> 00:14:21.759 There's just that sense in which He's doing something measured and something deliberate 00:14:21.759 --> 00:14:23.840 and something symbolic. 00:14:23.840 --> 00:14:28.480 He turns over the tables, but He's not there to fine tune things. 00:14:28.480 --> 00:14:32.639 He's not there to tweak things and to reform things. 00:14:32.639 --> 00:14:39.160 He is there declaring with the authority of God Himself as God that there's a day of 00:14:39.160 --> 00:14:40.920 judgment coming. 00:14:40.920 --> 00:14:43.399 There's a day of death coming. 00:14:43.399 --> 00:14:45.920 And there's no human institution. 00:14:45.920 --> 00:14:48.519 There's no self-made redemption. 00:14:48.519 --> 00:14:54.279 There's no efforts that anyone can make to reach up to God that can work. 00:14:54.279 --> 00:14:58.919 All these tables need to be turned upside down. 00:14:58.919 --> 00:15:02.720 And we need to destroy that way of thinking. 00:15:02.720 --> 00:15:07.039 We need to recognize that way of thinking only leads to death and separation from the 00:15:07.039 --> 00:15:08.879 living God. 00:15:08.879 --> 00:15:15.360 From its very roots, our efforts to reach God are damned to failure. 00:15:15.360 --> 00:15:18.279 And Jesus wants to get that message across. 00:15:18.279 --> 00:15:25.759 He wants to get that message across in this fig tree sandwich as He comes into the temple. 00:15:25.759 --> 00:15:34.120 The temple by Jesus times a monument to human failure to get right with God by ironically 00:15:34.120 --> 00:15:38.519 ignoring God, even among the religious people. 00:15:38.519 --> 00:15:44.480 Those who were the religious leaders who actually wanted Jesus dead because they thought they 00:15:44.480 --> 00:15:51.399 could get to God and please God by just doing outward moral and self-righteous acts. 00:15:51.399 --> 00:15:54.800 And, you know, we can be like that too. 00:15:54.800 --> 00:15:57.240 Let's not forget that. 00:15:57.240 --> 00:16:04.320 But by ignoring God, we're always separated under judgment, fruitless and spiritually 00:16:04.320 --> 00:16:05.320 dead. 00:16:05.320 --> 00:16:11.440 That's the message that Jesus wants to get across as He speaks in this challenging and 00:16:11.440 --> 00:16:12.440 powerful way. 00:16:12.440 --> 00:16:15.120 It's a really big message. 00:16:15.120 --> 00:16:23.040 It's a really big message that actually He's saying that death is not the natural conclusion 00:16:23.040 --> 00:16:24.040 of life. 00:16:24.040 --> 00:16:27.080 It's not just something that happens ordinarily. 00:16:27.080 --> 00:16:37.920 It's symptomatic of being separated from the author of life, God Himself, who gifts us 00:16:37.919 --> 00:16:45.479 life but from the moment we're born, we're... in His patience, He gives us life but we're 00:16:45.479 --> 00:16:49.919 dying and separated from Him without Jesus Christ. 00:16:49.919 --> 00:16:54.959 It's unpopular, it's humbling, it's a stark message that Jesus brings. 00:16:54.959 --> 00:16:58.159 So where's the unparalleled love you're speaking about? 00:16:58.159 --> 00:17:00.759 It seems like a pretty judgmental message. 00:17:00.759 --> 00:17:03.799 Well, it's not the end of the story. 00:17:03.799 --> 00:17:05.119 It's not the end of the story. 00:17:05.119 --> 00:17:10.239 Please stay with me just for a few more minutes and I hope that we can respond and worship 00:17:10.239 --> 00:17:17.439 because there's at least two symbolic realities unfold and Jesus is often using symbolism 00:17:17.439 --> 00:17:20.199 to get across His truth. 00:17:20.199 --> 00:17:28.919 So metaphorically, Jesus knows that He Himself is going to become the fig tree. 00:17:28.920 --> 00:17:35.759 Do you see that? 00:17:35.759 --> 00:17:40.600 He pronounces this judgment of death, destruction, fruitlessness on the fig tree because He Himself 00:17:40.600 --> 00:17:46.680 is about to become, as it were, metaphorically, the fig tree in our place. 00:17:46.680 --> 00:17:54.400 He's spoken about His crucifixion, death and resurrection and that's what's on His mind. 00:17:54.400 --> 00:18:00.920 He's about to take the sentence of death in inhumanity's place, the just judgment of 00:18:00.920 --> 00:18:04.800 God due to every person that death and eternal separation. 00:18:04.800 --> 00:18:10.640 He's going to take because He loves us, loves us so much. 00:18:10.640 --> 00:18:13.759 Before we would even thought of our born, He was willing to do this. 00:18:13.759 --> 00:18:15.200 He's going to take our place. 00:18:15.200 --> 00:18:19.960 That's how it's so deep, so costly, such an unfathomable love. 00:18:19.960 --> 00:18:22.640 I don't have the words for it. 00:18:22.640 --> 00:18:29.240 I can't even imagine that love and that's when being a preacher is a terrible thing because 00:18:29.240 --> 00:18:36.800 it's just so inadequate to get across, even to my own heart, the cost and the depth of 00:18:36.800 --> 00:18:45.200 a love of a living God who would be willing to take that judgment on Himself in our place, 00:18:45.200 --> 00:18:46.720 even though we had no time for Him. 00:18:46.720 --> 00:18:48.800 Christ says, I'll take your pain. 00:18:48.800 --> 00:18:51.880 I'm going to take your emptiness, your fear, your death. 00:18:51.880 --> 00:18:53.920 I'll pay the price. 00:18:53.920 --> 00:18:55.560 I'll bridge the gap. 00:18:55.560 --> 00:18:56.840 I can do it. 00:18:56.840 --> 00:18:58.320 I love you. 00:18:58.320 --> 00:18:59.320 Trust me. 00:18:59.320 --> 00:19:01.080 Have faith in me. 00:19:01.080 --> 00:19:07.760 This is the greatest, the deepest, the widest, the highest expression of love that you'll 00:19:07.760 --> 00:19:08.760 ever know. 00:19:08.760 --> 00:19:11.960 Now there'll be great expression of love shortly in a baptism. 00:19:11.960 --> 00:19:17.280 Love of parents, love of grandparents, love of aunties and uncles, family love, close love. 00:19:17.279 --> 00:19:21.799 There's love that's just swelling round this place today in many different ways. 00:19:21.799 --> 00:19:27.200 None of it, all of it significant, all of it from God, but none of it as deep or as high 00:19:27.200 --> 00:19:31.720 or as costly as what Jesus has done for us. 00:19:31.720 --> 00:19:39.279 And what I've done, He says, should turn your world upside down. 00:19:39.279 --> 00:19:41.720 That's part of the symbolism. 00:19:41.720 --> 00:19:48.400 To that greatest reunion that every living person is searching for in their hearts and 00:19:48.400 --> 00:19:53.960 lives and looking for in all kinds of different places, but not finding it in relationship 00:19:53.960 --> 00:19:59.600 with their Creator and their God and their Savior. 00:19:59.600 --> 00:20:06.839 Can only be found when we meet with God and Christ through what He's done. 00:20:06.839 --> 00:20:07.839 Fig tree. 00:20:07.839 --> 00:20:08.839 Okay. 00:20:08.839 --> 00:20:10.440 The fig tree. 00:20:10.440 --> 00:20:12.320 This was anticipating. 00:20:12.320 --> 00:20:17.480 In some ways it speaks about us, the fig tree, but I think most significantly here it speaks 00:20:17.480 --> 00:20:25.640 about Christ anticipating the coming judgment of the Father willingly that He takes on Himself, 00:20:25.640 --> 00:20:29.720 the Son through the Spirit in our place. 00:20:29.720 --> 00:20:37.640 So baptism speaks of beautiful, costly, sacrificial love. 00:20:37.640 --> 00:20:43.440 So metaphorically He becomes the fig tree, but also what He is saying is actually He 00:20:43.440 --> 00:20:47.400 becomes and He is the true temple. 00:20:47.400 --> 00:20:54.480 So the temple was always just a temporary measure that was designed to point people towards 00:20:54.480 --> 00:20:56.360 the coming Savior. 00:20:56.360 --> 00:21:00.680 Speak of His holiness, the separation, the big curtain that separated everyone from 00:21:00.680 --> 00:21:05.680 the holy of holies, the priests coming in once a year with the atoning sacrifice representing 00:21:05.680 --> 00:21:10.279 the people, but the temple and the dwelling of God with His people was always meant to 00:21:10.279 --> 00:21:21.160 simply point towards Jesus Christ who Himself by being the sacrifice would open up the way 00:21:21.160 --> 00:21:24.840 from the holy of holies for all of us to access God. 00:21:24.840 --> 00:21:25.840 So you know, you've got that. 00:21:25.840 --> 00:21:27.759 I mean, there's lots of symbolism, isn't there? 00:21:27.759 --> 00:21:32.519 And we're not great at symbolism in Scotland or in the West really. 00:21:32.519 --> 00:21:38.440 We don't think in these visual images quite so well as Eastern people. 00:21:38.440 --> 00:21:45.440 However, isn't that amazing picture, isn't it, of when Christ dies on the cross, this 00:21:45.440 --> 00:21:51.359 great big 80-foot curtain that separates the people from the holy of holies is ripped 00:21:51.359 --> 00:21:57.559 in two from top to bottom, symbolic of what Christ has achieved on the cross. 00:21:57.559 --> 00:22:05.639 That permanent, free and full access in prayer and in relationship to the living, creating, 00:22:05.639 --> 00:22:11.039 saving and judging God that we all can enjoy because of what He has done and the spilling 00:22:11.039 --> 00:22:13.359 of His blood. 00:22:13.359 --> 00:22:15.000 Because He is the true temple. 00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:18.000 He defeats evil and death on our behalf. 00:22:18.000 --> 00:22:26.599 And in His victory, we take up spiritual life and power, the resurrection power which we 00:22:26.599 --> 00:22:29.279 can share and trust with Him. 00:22:29.279 --> 00:22:34.559 There's many references to Jesus being the temple and no more so in Ephesians chapter 00:22:34.559 --> 00:22:43.159 2 and at verse 20 where He speaks about the church as being part of that as well. 00:22:43.159 --> 00:22:47.240 He says, but you are fellow citizens and saints, members of the household of God built in the 00:22:47.240 --> 00:22:49.480 foundation of the apostles and prophets. 00:22:49.480 --> 00:22:54.279 Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, which people rejected, we know, in whom the 00:22:54.279 --> 00:23:00.240 whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in Him you 00:23:00.240 --> 00:23:04.559 also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. 00:23:04.559 --> 00:23:09.920 So God dwells in His people, we become the temple of God because Jesus is the head of 00:23:09.920 --> 00:23:10.920 that. 00:23:10.920 --> 00:23:11.920 Jesus is the cornerstone. 00:23:11.920 --> 00:23:17.879 All kinds of images being used to describe the life that we get, the hope that we get, 00:23:17.879 --> 00:23:20.359 the power that we have in Christ. 00:23:20.359 --> 00:23:24.559 You see, the temple building couldn't do anything. 00:23:24.559 --> 00:23:31.519 Jesus, I think in a couple of chapters later on when He's in front of Pilate, they say 00:23:31.519 --> 00:23:34.719 about Jesus, oh Jesus, you know, He's a liar and a cheat. 00:23:34.719 --> 00:23:39.319 He said that the temple would be knocked down in three, it would be absolutely destroyed 00:23:39.319 --> 00:23:41.399 and in three days it would be built again. 00:23:41.399 --> 00:23:47.959 It took 64 years to build, but of course He was talking about Himself being the temple. 00:23:47.960 --> 00:23:52.519 A building can't do anything for us. 00:23:52.519 --> 00:24:00.400 You know, if the temple, if the Jews are looking for a temple to be rebuilt on the holy site 00:24:00.400 --> 00:24:06.200 in Israel tomorrow, it's not going to do them any good because Jesus is the temple. 00:24:06.200 --> 00:24:10.600 Jesus is the temple because it's a relationship we need, not a building. 00:24:10.600 --> 00:24:11.799 This church will not do any good. 00:24:11.799 --> 00:24:14.039 This building is going to go with all the other buildings. 00:24:14.039 --> 00:24:21.200 It's the person of Jesus and His power, His resurrection power that will make the difference 00:24:21.200 --> 00:24:25.680 in your life and mind because it takes us from death to life. 00:24:25.680 --> 00:24:31.480 And in Christ we're forgiven, rescued, and we're coming home. 00:24:31.480 --> 00:24:33.759 It's a great thing. 00:24:33.759 --> 00:24:35.559 It's a wonderful thing. 00:24:35.559 --> 00:24:40.359 We don't have any time to do any more, but just to finish with a couple of conclusions 00:24:40.359 --> 00:24:51.839 very quickly, because Jesus goes on to make that connection between the fig tree being 00:24:51.839 --> 00:24:57.639 dead and it being no use, and therefore the temple, and that way of trying to reach God 00:24:57.639 --> 00:25:03.879 being no use, and then He talks about prayer and faith, and faith that can move mountains. 00:25:03.879 --> 00:25:08.959 We don't have time really to go into that except that it's this recognition that it 00:25:08.960 --> 00:25:19.120 is in a relationship with Christ through prayer that we begin to experience new life, resurrection 00:25:19.120 --> 00:25:20.120 life. 00:25:20.120 --> 00:25:27.240 Have you ever thought, and you know, I think we think far, we speak a lot about the death 00:25:27.240 --> 00:25:28.240 of Jesus. 00:25:28.240 --> 00:25:32.559 I don't think we speak nearly enough about His resurrection, because without His resurrection 00:25:32.559 --> 00:25:39.919 His death would have wasted time. The resurrection reminds us that Jesus is the only living being 00:25:39.919 --> 00:25:45.559 whoever not only gave Himself over to death, death didn't take Him, He gave Himself over 00:25:45.559 --> 00:25:49.879 to death, He gave up His Spirit in order to take it up again on the third day, showing 00:25:49.879 --> 00:25:55.559 that He defeated sin and darkness and evil and death in His resurrection, and all who 00:25:55.559 --> 00:25:58.720 trust in Him will also know that defeat of death. 00:25:58.720 --> 00:26:04.039 So yes, we may well die unless He comes first, but yet we will still live. 00:26:04.039 --> 00:26:10.240 We will go on not only to live with Him, but to know resurrection life bodily and physically 00:26:10.240 --> 00:26:12.559 in His return. 00:26:12.559 --> 00:26:18.440 So prayer is that indication that we have come into a relationship with God. 00:26:18.440 --> 00:26:21.000 That's a mountain that's been moved. 00:26:21.000 --> 00:26:24.319 See what you prayed this morning? 00:26:24.319 --> 00:26:27.039 Supposing you could have thrown Arthur's seat into the sea, there wouldn't have been a greater 00:26:27.039 --> 00:26:28.839 miracle than you praying this morning. 00:26:28.839 --> 00:26:32.879 Ah, you could walk about and say, that would be great to be able to throw, what a face 00:26:32.879 --> 00:26:37.519 to throw Arthur's seat into the sea, why would you add in a white, you don't want to do that. 00:26:37.519 --> 00:26:40.680 When you think that would be a great miracle, amazing miracle, I've never seen anyone that 00:26:40.680 --> 00:26:42.799 could do such a miracle. 00:26:42.799 --> 00:26:48.639 But when you said dear Jesus this morning in prayer, that was a far greater miracle. 00:26:48.639 --> 00:26:55.079 And we take that for granted, and everything talking to God is just a waste of time, or 00:26:55.079 --> 00:26:58.599 it's just an empty kind of ritual that we're engaged in. 00:26:58.599 --> 00:27:03.599 There's no greater miracle than by faith praying to God because it shows that we are 00:27:03.599 --> 00:27:06.359 spiritually alive as we put our trust in Him. 00:27:06.359 --> 00:27:10.799 And you couldn't bring yourself to spiritual life, and I couldn't make that relationship 00:27:10.799 --> 00:27:11.799 with God work. 00:27:11.799 --> 00:27:14.439 Only Christ can do that as we come to Him by faith. 00:27:14.439 --> 00:27:21.519 That's why prayer, and that's why prayer opens us up to remarkable life if we only grasp 00:27:21.519 --> 00:27:26.559 that and see what the fruit of the Spirit is in our lives. 00:27:26.559 --> 00:27:30.440 No fruit, figless fig. 00:27:30.440 --> 00:27:35.079 We can be fruitful in Christ and we know what the fruit of God is to love, joy, peace, patience, 00:27:35.079 --> 00:27:38.240 goodness, gentleness, making us self-control. 00:27:38.240 --> 00:27:39.240 These are the mountains. 00:27:39.240 --> 00:27:41.359 These are the impossible things. 00:27:41.359 --> 00:27:43.960 You need them in your workplace tomorrow. 00:27:43.960 --> 00:27:45.960 You think you're ordinary. 00:27:45.960 --> 00:27:54.200 You're the most miraculous thing that ever lived as a Christian, and for that we give 00:27:54.200 --> 00:27:56.120 God the glory. 00:27:56.120 --> 00:28:02.319 And as part of that, as He says in verse 25, I think this is very important, forgiveness 00:28:02.319 --> 00:28:03.840 becomes our currency. 00:28:03.840 --> 00:28:11.840 I live in a bitter world, a sad, bitter, insensitive, careless, unforgiving world we do. 00:28:11.840 --> 00:28:15.160 And we all sense that in our own hearts. 00:28:15.160 --> 00:28:19.600 And yet He says, you know, talking about prayer, He says, whenever you stand praying, 00:28:19.600 --> 00:28:23.759 forgive if you have anything against anyone so that your Father also in heaven may forgive 00:28:23.759 --> 00:28:24.759 you. 00:28:24.759 --> 00:28:26.880 That's the currency of the cross. 00:28:26.880 --> 00:28:30.960 We can't swan about thinking that Jesus, we love Jesus, loves us, and that we can go 00:28:30.960 --> 00:28:35.279 on living any old way we want, and hating, and being divisive, and being gossipy, and 00:28:35.279 --> 00:28:44.279 being unforgiving, because it's the currency of the gospel that we live. 00:28:44.279 --> 00:28:48.519 And of course, that we accept Christ's authority. 00:28:48.519 --> 00:28:51.440 That's the last section here. 00:28:51.440 --> 00:28:56.399 The authority of Jesus questioned, because the Jewish religious believer, the religious 00:28:56.399 --> 00:29:00.960 leaders reckoned only someone with great authority who could ever say anything against 00:29:00.960 --> 00:29:01.960 the temple. 00:29:01.960 --> 00:29:02.960 So they asked Him about His authority. 00:29:02.960 --> 00:29:05.920 They always used to do that about Jesus. 00:29:05.920 --> 00:29:12.480 But actually they were afraid of Him, and they wanted Him dead because of what He did 00:29:12.480 --> 00:29:14.960 and because of what He said. 00:29:14.960 --> 00:29:18.680 They weren't willing to accept His authority, so Jesus didn't tell them. 00:29:18.680 --> 00:29:19.680 Which is quite often what He did. 00:29:19.680 --> 00:29:21.400 He answered a question with a question. 00:29:21.400 --> 00:29:25.519 It's quite a good technique sometimes, answer a question with a question. 00:29:25.519 --> 00:29:30.680 If you think the question isn't being asked genuinely, which Jesus obviously reckoned 00:29:30.680 --> 00:29:32.519 it wasn't on their behalf. 00:29:32.519 --> 00:29:34.160 But they were afraid of Him. 00:29:34.160 --> 00:29:36.240 They wanted Him dead. 00:29:36.240 --> 00:29:39.920 They knew that He was a threat to their power and their authority and to the way that they 00:29:39.920 --> 00:29:42.360 were living. 00:29:42.359 --> 00:29:49.240 But you know, they didn't need to be afraid of Him. 00:29:49.240 --> 00:29:57.799 In Matthew 23 and verse 37, Jesus says, Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills 00:29:57.799 --> 00:30:03.319 the prophets and stones those who are sent to it, how often would I have gathered your 00:30:03.319 --> 00:30:11.679 children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings and you were not willing to 00:30:11.680 --> 00:30:14.680 see a land of slay desolate. 00:30:14.680 --> 00:30:17.759 They didn't have been afraid. 00:30:17.759 --> 00:30:24.320 Jesus loved them and He wanted them to come in faith to recognize His authority. 00:30:24.320 --> 00:30:27.480 You might be afraid today of Jesus. 00:30:27.480 --> 00:30:33.400 You might be afraid of what He means in your life if you give your life to Him. 00:30:33.400 --> 00:30:39.759 You might still think He's mean and nasty like a surface reading of the fig tree in 00:30:39.759 --> 00:30:45.559 the temple and angry with an uncontrolled anger. 00:30:45.559 --> 00:30:52.640 But can you see beyond that and see His purpose and see the symbolism and see the control 00:30:52.640 --> 00:31:01.599 and the message and the unparalleled love of what He was doing that has redeemed Bobby 00:31:01.599 --> 00:31:12.480 and Sarah and that they can as covenant parents share with Phoebe, recognizing that great privilege 00:31:12.480 --> 00:31:15.119 that is ours. 00:31:15.119 --> 00:31:21.679 Whose authority are you listening to every day and in every decision? 00:31:21.679 --> 00:31:26.359 It's the biggest question that we all have to answer in our hearts. 00:31:26.359 --> 00:31:30.000 It's the biggest question you will be faced with this week. 00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:32.440 You will be faced with all kinds of questions this week. 00:31:32.440 --> 00:31:35.519 That's the biggest and most important you will ever have to face. 00:31:35.519 --> 00:31:38.599 Who governs your heart? 00:31:38.599 --> 00:31:39.599 Who's your Lord? 00:31:39.599 --> 00:31:43.839 And it's a challenge I think for all of us. 00:31:43.839 --> 00:31:44.839 Amen. 00:31:44.839 --> 00:31:45.839 Let's pray. 00:31:45.839 --> 00:31:48.759 Father we thank You for who You are. 00:31:48.759 --> 00:31:50.359 We thank You for Your Word. 00:31:50.359 --> 00:31:55.400 We thank You for the amazing truth that it holds. 00:31:55.400 --> 00:32:02.200 Give us when we are unable with words to really get across Your truth but we believe in faith 00:32:02.200 --> 00:32:08.759 that when we go with Your Word and when we declare Your revelation then You will do Your 00:32:08.759 --> 00:32:09.960 work through that. 00:32:09.960 --> 00:32:12.400 However weak and stumbling that will be. 00:32:12.400 --> 00:32:19.640 And we commit this truth to every heart today that we would see Your unparalleled love. 00:32:19.640 --> 00:32:25.320 Can we ever imagine that in 2000 there's someone so important as Jesus Christ. 00:32:25.319 --> 00:32:31.720 God in the flesh who did the most remarkable transaction for us before we were even conceived 00:32:31.720 --> 00:32:36.599 or thought about or nearly existing. 00:32:36.599 --> 00:32:43.599 Lord help us to see that great love and recognize that amazing power in prayer and in relationship 00:32:43.599 --> 00:32:52.079 with You which is an evidence of that great resurrection power that is ours in Jesus. 00:32:52.079 --> 00:32:55.519 So bless us and bless us as we move into the baptism. 00:32:55.519 --> 00:33:01.159 We thank You so much for that privilege, for that again that symbol, a visual symbol of 00:33:01.159 --> 00:33:05.759 what Your promises and of Your work among us. 00:33:05.759 --> 00:33:08.079 We rejoice in it so much. 00:33:08.079 --> 00:33:09.559 Bless us we pray in Jesus' name. 00:33:09.559 --> 00:33:22.559 Amen.