Good to see everyone out.
We're going to begin with a word of prayer and then we'll get into our text.
oh
Gracious Father in heaven we bow before your throne grateful for your day that you've blessed us with the beauty of it the opportunity that we've had to And the energy that
we've had to be able to be involved in it We're grateful for the ability that we have to assemble together To study your word to learn more about your will for our lives and for
the church for those who are disciples of Christ
Lord, as we look into the life of Christ and the things which He did, may we have the zeal for Your Word that He had.
May we be willing to stand boldly for the truth as He did.
And may we also be willing to be patient and understanding with people as they learn and as they grow.
May we always seek to speak the truth and to do so in a way that people will hear it, will understand.
be convicted by it, but will repent and change and become closer to you.
Lord, we pray that you be with this nation that we live in.
We pray that you be with leaders throughout the world.
May the choices that they make be those which are in accordance with your will and in accordance with your word.
And may their actions produce peace through which the gospel can be spread.
All this we pray and ask in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Chapter 11 verse 11, Jesus arrives in Jerusalem, the people having fallen down, having cried out, Hosanna to the highest, having laid the palm leaves there as He rode in on the
colt.
He enters Jerusalem and then He enters the temple.
Verse 11, so when he had looked around at all things as the hour was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.
And we know from another text that Bethany is about two miles from Jerusalem.
So he would come into the city.
Then at evening time, he didn't stay in Jerusalem.
at least not during this period of time.
We already know that the disciples are on guard in anticipating trouble because when Jesus went to Bethany prior to these events, because Lazarus had died, what is it that Thomas
said?
Well, he said, let's go with him.
If he's going to die, we'll die with him.
And so they're already recognizing that there's trouble coming.
And Jesus has been telling them that there's trouble coming.
And now as they come into the city of Jerusalem, they get this reception, which is truly a positive reception, or at least seems to be.
But by the time they arrive in the city, it's late in the day, goes into Jerusalem, goes into the temple.
And the text tells us that he did what?
while he was in the temple.
looked around.
So back in April when I went out and helped with the Bitcoin conference, uh first thing Sunday morning before I headed to church there in the congregation in Las Vegas, I got up
early just because I wanted to go down into the conference center and see what all had already been set up because a lot of things were getting set up later that day.
And so basically it was me and about
12 other people in this great big Giants conference center.
And as you're going around, you just look at everything.
You see behind the scenes.
You see what all's not finished yet, what all's in process.
And there's a feast coming.
There's a feast day that's going to arrive in the coming days.
So you can imagine there in Jerusalem, there in the temple, there are preparations happening.
for the feast.
And so, as all of these things are going on, Jesus comes into the city, goes into the temple, is looking around, not doing anything.
Not teaching, not saying anything.
Goes in, looks around, and then leaves.
But that's not how the rest of the week's gonna turn out.
That's not how the coming days are going to go.
But they come into the city, the fanfare of the arrival was outside the city as they were entering, and then when he comes in, nothing happens.
turns around, goes out for the night to Bethany.
Now why do you think he went to Bethany at night?
All right, that's where Mary, Martha, and Lazarus lived.
So they had a lodging place there with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.
So there's some indication that Judas' father, uh Simon, or Simeon lived there.
uh One of the things John tells us after he records the raising of Lazarus is that after Lazarus was raised from the dead, what were people trying to do or plotting to do to
Lazarus?
Kill him.
So not only,
Are they now out for Jesus's life?
They're out for the life of Lazarus.
Well, do you think if you were to just give a natural evaluation to it, Lazarus being someone who the people in Bethany knew, Lazarus having been dead just a few days before
and now alive, do you think Jesus was safer in Bethany amongst the people who knew Lazarus or in Jerusalem?
I dare say Bethany.
So I think there's a reason why Jesus is going out to Bethany at night and not staying in Jerusalem.
And I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that there is a point in time where it was the right time for the betrayal and for these things to occur.
And by the way, when the betrayal and those things occur, is it gonna be in the middle of the day?
Is it gonna be while he's teaching in the temple or is it gonna be in the midst of the night?
Okay?
The very first night that Jesus stays in Jerusalem, he is arrested, put on trial, and taken to be crucified.
I think there's your indication of why he's not staying in Jerusalem at night.
Okay?
Now.
The next day, verse 12, when they had come out from Bethany, he was hungry.
And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, he went to see if perhaps he would find something on it.
When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.
In response, Jesus said to it, said to the tree, let no one eat fruit from you ever again.
and his disciples heard it.
So, Jesus is coming into the city the next day, somewhere on the path between Bethany and Jerusalem, there was a fig tree.
Jesus is passing by, Jesus is hungry, the text tells us this wasn't casual interest, he was hungry.
Maybe Martha took it to heart.
The thing is she needed to be focused on more spiritual things, so she didn't make breakfast that morning.
I don't know.
But the fact of the matter was he was hungry.
But what did Jesus know about the season?
Well, it's time for VIGS.
Why does Jesus pronounce this curse against the tree if even Jesus knew it wasn't time for there to be fruit on the tree?
All right, so you have to go do a little bit of research into the development process of a fig tree, but the fruit would have been there based upon the appearance of the tree.
The fruit comes in kind of a weird order in that type of plant, and so the appr-
appearance of the tree indicated there should have been fruit on it, even though it was the wrong season.
But when you arrive at the tree, when you arrive at the thing that appears to have borne fruit, was there any fruit?
No.
And as is often the case, as you will see in the text as we go along, Jesus is not using the physical circumstance
to teach the disciples to be arbitrary in their use of God's word or curses or uh miraculous actions, he is teaching them a lesson about their nation.
And it's an object lesson.
It's an object lesson in the form of a fig tree.
So.
The disciples heard it.
I don't think it's coincidence that Mark makes it clear.
Jesus said it and the disciples heard it.
Mark is helping us to pay attention to this was not about Jesus and food.
This was about what the disciples needed to understand.
Verse 15, So they came to Jerusalem.
Then Jesus went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in the temple.
Now, what had he done the day before?
Spied out what was going on.
He had scouted out what the plans were for the feast.
Now is this the first occasion that Jesus has driven people out of the temple?
No, this has happened before.
Which tells us what about the first occasion?
It didn't stick.
They didn't learn their lesson.
They did not continue in what he had taught, what he had enforced upon them.
Now what is it that uh the text here says that he drove out those who bought and sold in the temple?
What are they buying?
What are they selling?
Alright, sacrifices.
Okay, was, indication of history is that it was very commonplace that the dove you could buy out on the marketplace and the dove that you could buy that came from the temple that
was an acceptable sacrifice weren't exactly in the same price region.
It's kind of like if you go into Kroger and you buy a case of 32 water bottles,
and then you take those home, you can drink those for about four dollars.
If you go to the baseball game and you try and get one of those same water bottles, one of them will cost you seven dollars, okay?
That's what they were doing at the temple with the sacrifices.
Now, why would anyone in Jerusalem buy sacrifices at those inflated rates?
Why not just bring their own?
All right, in the text back in the Old Testament, the law gave a provision for those who traveled a long distance to, if they were from a distance and they were coming to offer
their sacrifices, the law specifically allowed them to sell their goods back at home instead of,
bringing sheep and cattle and doves and all of these things from their home all the way to Jerusalem or all the way to the temple or all the way to the tabernacle, depending on the
time period, uh to offer these sacrifices.
They could exchange those things for money back at home.
And then they could come to where the tabernacle or the temple was and they could buy the things for their sacrifices there.
Thereby not having to transport all of those items and some of which might get lost along the way Could you could you offer a lamb that had broken its leg along along the way?
No, but you could sell the lamb back at home You could buy a lamb that was unspotted and unblemished there in the temple and offer that one But what they found?
was what they sold the ones for at home.
They couldn't buy the same thing in Jerusalem because of the prices.
Because, and this is the reason why Jesus ah on the occasion will say, have turned my father's house into a den of what?
Thieves.
So.
That's what they're selling.
What are they buying?
currency that they had to.
Alright, absolutely.
So when you went and sold your goods in Ephesus as a Jew living in Ephesus and you sold your goods that you had there because you were going to travel to Jerusalem and you were
going to observe the feast so you sold your goods in Ephesus what currency were you going to get in Ephesus?
Roman currency.
You're going to get the currency of the day, the Roman Empire.
You're going to get something that had Caesar's face on it.
Would that have been common if you had sold something in the marketplace in Jerusalem?
Absolutely it would have.
As a matter of fact, you remember when Jesus was there at the temple and they say, should you pay taxes?
And Jesus tells Peter to go and to open the mouth of the fish and pull out the money and
Whose face is on the coin?
Caesar's.
You could get Roman currency in any city in the Roman Empire.
But what could you not use to pay your sacrifices and the temple taxes and the ordinances in the temple?
You can use the Roman currency.
You had to use temple.
currency.
You couldn't bring that stuff that had the image of that Roman guy into the temple.
No, no, no, that stuff wasn't allowed under the law.
So you had to have temple currency.
So the ones who are sitting there would say, we'll buy your Roman currency.
Here's the exchange rate.
For anyone who's traveled overseas, a few people who know this,
uh One of the things you do not do when you travel overseas is exchange your money at the airport because you're getting a $7 water bottle.
The exchange rate at the airport is about double or triple what the exchange rate is at a bank a mile away from the airport.
So that's what they were doing.
If you want a dollar for dollar,
you weren't getting it at the temple.
If you wanted coin for coin, you weren't getting it at the temple.
What you brought with you wouldn't buy you what you brought with you when you went to go make your offerings.
So, they not only were specifically doing this, they were specifically doing this in direct assault to those who had traveled the greatest distances
to come and worship God.
This wasn't a problem for the people who lived in Jerusalem.
People who lived in Jerusalem had access to the temple currency.
People who lived in Jerusalem could bring their own lambs.
The people who lived in Judea right around the area, they had no problem transporting their doves to the location to offer sacrifices.
That wasn't, it was everybody outside.
that was getting robbed when they came to offer the sacrament.
So Jesus, having walked into the temple the day before and observing what was going on, comes in the next morning and drives out all the people buying and selling.
Question?
Okay.
Does this mean, and is the lesson for us to learn in the text that it is
unrighteous, unholy, ungodly to sell something on the church premises.
No.
It is unrighteous, it is unholy, it is ungodly to defraud someone, whether on the church premises or not and the fact that you do it at the church does not now make it holy.
If it would be fraud, outside.
but that's what they were doing.
They were saying, no, no, no, this is
this is okay because this is at the temple.
The money we use is holy, the gold of the temple is holy, the things of the temple are holy.
All these things are holy, therefore when we defraud you, we're not actually committing fraud.
Jesus and his emphasis here is not about, you know what, if somebody walks through the back door and they've got a box with candy bars in it and they're raising funds for their
baseball team and somebody says, you know, we really shouldn't be buying and selling stuff in the church building.
That's not what this is about.
That's not the point.
The point is that what they were doing
was not only that which was not righteous, it was the exact opposite of righteous, as they defrauded their own people who were coming to worship God.
Now this was not new.
Matter of fact, it goes, went all the way back to the days of Eli and his sons.
who when the people would come and bring their offerings, they would reach in and get the portion that belonged to the Lord.
and they would participate in other activities there at the tabernacle that were in direct violation of the Word of God.
And they would claim they were holy in doings.
So, he would not allow anyone to carry weirs through the temple.
Is it appropriate, all right, so we talked about the idea of somebody bringing a box of chocolate bars in and fundraiser, is it appropriate to turn the worship of God into a
fundraiser?
No.
Is it appropriate to turn the house of God into a marketplace?
No.
Jesus is not only going to drive out the buyers and the sellers because of the things that they are doing that is pictured in the remainder of the text and in the prior occasion,
but you also have Jesus saying, listen, you want to go do business?
Do it out there.
Don't bring it in here.
So he would not allow anyone to carry weirs through the temple.
Then he taught, saying to them, Is it not written, My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations?
But you have made it a den of thieves.
One more thing that comes to mind from a few places that I've traveled and a few places I've been is...
When you go, let's say, to a farmer's market here in the States.
The people who are bringing the stuff and selling the stuff at the farmer's market, are they in your face trying to sell you every single thing that they've got?
Are they kind of sitting back just letting you browse, see what you want?
Here in America, we kind of have this culture of the person who's selling sits back and offers customer service.
That's not how it is in a lot of places in the world.
It is quite to the contrary in marketplaces.
If you walk into the marketplace, you are their mark.
They are coming for you to get you to spend your money and get you to buy something right now.
Now imagine you came into the temple to pray.
And after the seventeenth guy came up to you trying to hawk his wares to you, were you really in a mindset to pray?
It is not appropriate, it is not right to turn the house of God into a marketplace.
Jesus goes back to that passage and He says, it has it not been written?
My house shall be called a house of prayer.
But now notice the rest of the phrase.
The house of prayer for who?
all nations.
little bit more on what they would do in the temple.
in the temple you had the outer courtyard.
This would be the area that was not in the temple.
It was in the temple grounds, but it was the outer courtyard.
In the outer courtyard, you had the courtyard of the Gentiles.
If you were a Gentile and not a proselyte, but you desired to worship the God of Israel, you could come into the courtyard and no further.
Courtyard of the Gentiles was the limit.
Then there was the courtyard of the women.
You could come a little bit further if you were a woman and a Jew.
and no further.
Then if you were a Jewish male, you could actually enter into the area of the temple, excluding obviously the holy place and the most holy place.
So there were these tiers of access.
And yet Jesus points out that God had said, my house is to be a house of prayer for all nations.
Turn back to Isaiah.
Isaiah chapter 56.
Chapter 56, verse one, keep justice and do righteousness.
For my salvation is about to come and my righteousness to be revealed.
Blessed is the man who does this and the son of man who lays hold on it, who keeps from defiling the Sabbath and keeps his hand from doing any evil.
The beginning of this chapter in Isaiah, Isaiah is saying,
You need to focus on justice.
You need to focus on righteousness because I'm going to reveal my righteousness and when I reveal my righteousness it's going to be readily apparent if you're not righteous.
But then he points out
They need to be careful about the Sabbath.
What is it they were not supposed to do on the Sabbath?
Work, buy, sell, trade.
They weren't supposed to have their animals work.
They weren't supposed to have their servants work.
They weren't supposed to have the people who were foreigners in the land work.
Quite often in the Old Testament when things were set right, one of the things that prophets and kings would do to try and get the Sabbath to be observed properly is they'd
shut the city gates on the Sabbath.
Because if the gates were open, commerce was happening.
And they said, that's fine, we'll just shut the gates.
Isaiah is going to begin with justice and righteousness.
He's going to follow that up with the Sabbath.
Then he says, not let the son of the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord speak saying the Lord has utterly separated me from his people.
Now notice, this is a descendant of a foreigner, a non-Jew.
But this person has done what?
He has joined himself to the Lord.
And Isaiah warns the people.
He says, you better not let the Lord hear that you are blocking a foreigner's access.
To the Lord!
But what were the Jews doing?
you can come in the temple courtyard, but you can come that far and no further.
No, you can't approach the Lord.
You can't approach His throne.
No, you can't do that.
You're not a Jew.
He goes on.
He says, nor let the eunuch say, here I am, a dry tree.
For thus says the Lord to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths and choose what pleases me and hold fast my covenant, even to them I will give uh in my house and within my walls a place
and a name better than that of sons and daughters.
I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.
For the Jewish mindset, someone who couldn't have children was an outcast.
They were disgraced, even though the situation may have been not of their choosing.
And yet, God says, you may not have an inheritance among my people.
You may not have your name continue on in the land, but I'll give you a name.
and I'll make sure it lasts forever.
He goes down to verse 4, also the sons of the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord to serve him and to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants, everyone who keeps from
defiling the Sabbath and holds fast my covenant, even them I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer.
their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar.
for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.
Isaiah warns Israel.
You don't get to cut off the foreigner from bringing sacrifices to the Lord.
You don't get to abuse the foreigner and separate them from the Lord.
You don't get to create injustice against the foreigner simply because they weren't born in your nation.
because my house is to be a house of prayer.
Now, is Isaiah trying to teach us that anybody who wants to, anybody who has a desire to worship God can just bring their religion and their history and their ideology to the Lord
and he will accept it?
No.
The text is already very clear.
These are individuals who are foreigners who have joined themselves to the Lord.
These individuals are in fellowship with God.
The problem is not their fellowship with God.
The problem is that those people who are Israelites are blocking the access to God.
And Isaiah stands way back 800 years before the days of Christ to declare that this is not to be done.
yet in Jesus' day.
Is it being done?
Absolutely.
That last verse there in verse 8 of Isaiah 56, the Lord God who gathers the outcasts of Israel says, yet I will gather to Him others besides those who are gathered to Him.
Isaiah as he looks forward towards the Messiah.
says, here's a nation that thinks they're surrounding God, that they are joined to God, that they are gathered to the Lord.
And Isaiah says, I'll tell you who's actually gathered to the Lord.
all the people those people reject, all the people who are outcast by those people, all the people who care more about the Lord than they care about themselves.
when you come back to Mark chapter 11.
oh
the scribes and the chief priests, verse 18, heard it and sought how they might destroy him.
Why do you think the scribes and the chief priests are trying to get rid of Jesus because of this act?
Alright, it hurt their pride and their pocketbooks.
Who do you think gets paid for you to have access to be a buyer or a seller in the marketplace or in the temple?
That's right, the people in charge of the temple.
And whose authority do you operate under?
Their authority.
So when Jesus drives out the buyers and the sellers and all those doing commerce in the temple,
He's not only taking away their authority, he's also taking away their cash flow.
So when they heard about it, they sought how they might destroy him, for they feared him, because all the people were astonished at his teaching.
When evening had come, he went out of the city.
Now in the morning, next day, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots.
And Peter, remembering, said to him, Rabbi, look, the fig tree which you cursed has withered away.
So Jesus answered and said to them, Have faith in God.
For assuredly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, be removed and be cast into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done,
he will have whatever he says.
Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them and you will have them.
And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him.
that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.
But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.
What are the two lessons from the fig tree that Jesus applies here in his response to Peter?
Alright, the prayer of faith.
and the requirement to forgive in order to be forgiven.
the requirement to remove yourself from first place and put someone else there in order to receive forgiveness from God.
as the disciples look at the tree.
There's a couple of interesting statements that are in this text that you shouldn't miss.
Number one, how was the tree dried up?
from the roots.
When wintertime comes and when the seasons change and when the natural order of things occur, which part of the tree dries up?
part of the ground, leaves.
If you're tired of raking, you know.
If you're gonna be tired of raking, you know.
It's not the base that falls over, it's the leaves that fall out.
But if you had observed this fig tree...
you would have noticed likely...
The leaves were all still there?
but the tree itself.
had dried up and withered.
the exact opposite of the natural order the exact opposite of the way that it should have been seen
and that's causing Peter to go master.
Do you see the tree?
the first lesson that Jesus teaches from this.
is that.
You should not doubt the power of God.
struggle for us.
We're not living in the age of the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Nobody's going to be walking down the street and suddenly say, tree?
You're going to be withered by tomorrow.
And then the tree's gone the next day.
And by the way, who is he instructing and who is he not instructing?
Who's in his immediate presence when he teaches this lesson?
All right, the apostles.
Do we realize, we should, do we realize that there's a difference between the things Jesus said to the apostles and the things he said to everybody else?
Certainly, this same statement is one that he is going to make to those who will receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
So when Paul, in Acts chapter 13, is standing before the procounsel and teaching him the truth, and Bar-Jesus comes and starts trying to persuade the procounsel to not accept the
truth and the gospel, and Paul tells Bar-Jesus, you're not going to see anymore.
From that moment, that man goes blind.
That's what Jesus is telling.
when Elijah way back in the Old Testament...
told King Ahab, it's not going to reign in the northern kingdom of Israel until I say so.
wasn't a statement of pride.
It wasn't Elijah being too big for his own britches.
As a matter of fact, it wasn't going to rain for three and a half years until Elijah said so.
Why?
because Elijah knew that when he spoke, he spoke the words and the commands of God.
And when Paul spoke to Bar-Jesus, Paul didn't have some secret acid in his back pocket that he tossed in the guy's eyes to where he would go blind.
He knew that he spoke by the authority of God.
Jesus is trying to get His disciples to realize.
Number one, if they would trust God, if they would have complete and utter faith in God, in God's ability, you remember Abraham said, with God, anything is possible.
If they would trust God, then what they needed, when they needed it, would be there.
What they said would happen and it would happen,
but if they doubted God,
what would they become
trees that bear no fruit.
If they didn't have faith in God's ability, they would become trees that bear no fruit
because he's about to die.
All the way up till this point, they just relied on his faith.
When they were in the boat and the storm was going to overcome the boat did they rely on their faith?
No!
They said, Master, wake!
We're gonna die!
They relied on his faith.
Jesus is making it very clear to them, they cannot afford to rely on his faith anymore, or they will become trees that bear no fruit.
second lesson and we'll close.
is real.
Israel was in the state it was in as a nation.
because they no longer cared about people.
They no longer loved the outcasts.
They no longer loved the foreigner.
They no longer wanted to see the Gentiles worship the Lord.
They couldn't care less about the Gentiles.
They weren't interested in people coming to the Lord.
Jesus will later on in the week tell that the Pharisees would go out.
and they would search high and low to make one Gentile a proselyte only to turn them into twice the child of hell that they were.
They don't care about people.
In order to forgive people, you have to care about people.
And they didn't.
And if authority, I believe there's a reason why these lessons are given in this order.
Because when you are tempted to allow great authority to go to your head, you no longer care about the people you have authority over.
And here are these apostles and they're about to be going from servants of the master to the ones who are finally given authority.
and Jesus is going to make it clear to them, they have to have enough love for people to be willing to forgive.
And they have to remember that just because they have authority doesn't mean they no longer have a master.
and that their Master in heaven will withhold forgiveness if they do.
fig tree teaches the lessons that if we do not have faith in God, if we don't trust God to do His part and just do what He says do,
we won't bear fruit.
If we trust God and we just do what we're supposed to do and let Him do what He said He'll do, we'll bear fruit.
but if we don't care about people, if we don't love people and we won't forgive people, if we believe that we are beyond the point of ever having to forgive.
then ultimately the person who will never be forgiven is us.
Isaiah wrote about the foreigner who was joined to the Lord.
And at end of Matthew chapter 23, Jesus is going to talk about a nation?
where God was as a mother hen who desired to gather her chicks and they would not.
Here are these foreigners that they want to know the Lord God Jehovah of Israel.
And here's God's own people and they're like, we don't want anything to do with
There's the lesson from the fig tree.