April 2, 2023

We turn our thoughts this morning to the topic of this triumphal entrance into the holy city. Now, last year, if you can remember, a year ago, we had that message. The name of the message was Hosanna, if you want to refresh your memory of that, from last year. The main takeaway from last year's message was that Jesus's entrance into the Holy City was an acting out a precursor of his next entrance into the Holy City, which is the one that we await when he returns.

So, that's what we looked at last time on, on triumphal entrance Sunday. Today we're going to look at the next episode that occurs right after that, and that's the episode that's often referred to as the cleansing of the temple, the very next thing that Jesus does after he enters into the Holy City. So, we'll look this morning at Mark's account of this because Mark's account is the fullest account of this episode known as the cleansing of the temple.

So, we'll be looking at Mark chapter 11. If you're using a Pew Bible, then you'll find our text on page 1009. This episode is connected together with another episode known as the cursing of the fig tree when Jesus curses the fig tree. That episode was going to begin in verse 12, and so, we'll be looking this morning from verses 12 down through verse 26 or 25.

So, let's begin by reading our passage together, starting from verse 12. On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry and seeing in the distance of fig tree and leaf, he went to see if he would find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves for it was not the season for figs.

And he said to it, may no one ever eat fruit from you again. And his disciples heard it, and they came to Jerusalem and he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple. And he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons.

And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. And he was teaching them and saying to them, is it not written? My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations, but you have made it a den of robbers. And the chief priests and the scribes heard it, and were seeking a way to destroy him for they feared him because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching.

And when evening came, they went out of the city. And as they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away at its roots. And Peter remembered and said to him, Rabbi, look, the fig tree that you cursed has withered. And Jesus answered him, have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, be taken up and thrown into the sea.

And does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what we said he says will come to pass. It will be done for him. Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying, forgive if you have anything against anyone so, that your father also in who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.

So, here is our text for this morning. These, these two incidents sandwiched together in Mark's favorite technique of sandwiching or bracketing, in which he has two stories told together. And he interrupts the first one to tell the second one, and then comes back to complete the the first one. We saw this already in chapter three.

As he's already introduced this technique for us, he's going to use it many more times. But here we come to chapter 11, and the technique here is just going to work wonderfully for us. As he's sandwiching these two events together. Matthew also puts these two events together, but Matthew tells of the cleansing incident, the throwing out of the, of the temple, and then he follows that up with the cursing of the fig tree.

However, Mark's method is going to be very effective for us as we seek to properly understand this passage this morning because this are two of the most problematic episodes in the life of Jesus. Two of the most perplexing events in Jesus' life. Many people have been vexed to try to understand what exactly these passages are saying to us because they, on the surface, they just seem so, odd to us.

So, out of place, particularly the first in incident of Jesus' cursing of the fig tree, it seems to be such a incident that is out of character of Jesus. Here he is, we're told that he's hungry and he sees a fig tree and he goes over to get some figs, to eat some figs. And Mark tells us that it's not the season for figs to be on the tree, and he finds nothing on the tree, and he just seems to be so, angry that he curses a fig tree, an inanimate object, and then the fig tree dies.

And it just seems so, out of character for Jesus. This is his last miracle that he'll perform, and it is completely different from every miracle that he's performed up to this point. Jesus' first miracle in his last miracle are sort of unique. Remember, his first miracle was the changing the water to the wine at the wedding at Kenya, and that was sort of an odd miracle because that miracle was not about restoring somebody's sight or saving somebody's life or cleansing a leper.

It was about saving face for some acquaintances who didn't plan properly for the wedding and were running out of wine. But this miracle is even more strange as Jesus' last miracle. This is the only miracle that he ever performs. That is a miracle of destruction, not a miracle of restoration. It doesn't bring life.

It doesn't bring safety. It doesn't bring restored eyesight. It doesn't cleanse a Leo. It doesn't cast out a demon, it destroys, it takes life instead of gives life. Furthermore, it seems to be a miracle, the only miracle that Jesus performs out of anger. Now we are told that he's angry in other instances, we just recently saw how Jesus was said to be angry in the synagogue when the Pharisees were watching him to see if he would heal the man's withered hand on the Sabbath.

So, we're told that he was angry. He looked at them with anger. But here Jesus seems to be acting out of anger towards an inanimate object. Have you ever been angry at an inanimate object? Like you step on a Lego and you're mad at the Lego, and then later you realize how foolish to be mad at an object like that?

Jesus seems to be mad at the tree, curses the tree. The tree then dies, and then comes this next episode when he's angry and throwing people out of the temple. So, what are we to make of this? On the surface, it just seems, again, just so, out of character. Many of the commentators that I read about, This passage really struggled to find anything in it worthy of, of the son of God.

One commentator calls it a gross injustice carried out on an innocent tree. Berman Russell, the famous atheist who wrote in his book, why I'm Not a Christian, he references this episode and said, this episode seems to be so, beneath the character of even a righteous man, much less the son of God. So, what are we to make of this problematic view of Jesus?

This problematic occurrence, this, this incident in which this just seems so, perplexing and out of place for us. So, as we look at this, what we're going to take a look at this morning is we're going to look first at the temple incident, the pe, the throwing the people out of the temple. And then we'll come back and we'll look finally at the.

And we're going to see as, as Mark unfolds these events for us. Always. What he's doing is he's helping us to understand the two of them together. And as he puts them together, he's helping us to see the overall point. So, we'll begin with the center passage, the passage of the, what's known as the cleansing of the temple.

So, in this incident, let's just read again from verse 15. They came to Jerusalem. He entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple. And he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pit pigeons. And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple.

So, in this instant, a number of interpretations have been offered up as to what it is that Jesus is actually trying to accomplish. What is his rebuke directed toward and what, what sort of goal does he hope to achieve by throwing these people out of the temple? So, it's been offered, uh, possibly the, the, the, uh, Possibility that Jesus was trying to begin some sort of insurrection and by, by accosting the people in the temple.

Here he is, he's trying to ignite some sort of insurrection against the leaders. And that's, that's just completely unlike, not just unlikely. That's absurd because there is absolutely no support for that at all. So, we'll just discount that one and we'll look at maybe a couple of the. Sort of leading views as to what Jesus was trying to accomplish and throwing the people out of the temple.

So, one view has it that Jesus was angry that the Gentile worshipers were being prevented from coming and worshiping in this temple because Jesus enters the temple now. Now he doesn't enter the temple proper, but he enters into the temple, what was known as the temple courtyard, the outer courtyard, the temple.

Of course, there was the building itself. That was the temple that inside that building was the Holy of Holies. Then outside of that was another courtyard for Jewish men and then another for Jewish women. And then there was the larger courtyard that's known of as the court of the Gentiles. And so, it's been said that perhaps Jesus was angry that these gentiles who were coming to worship were being impeded from their worship because Jesus does say after.

That my father's house reckoning us back to, of course, when Jesus was a young boy and even then calling this his father's house, Jesus says, my father's house is to be called a house of prayer. So, maybe what this is indicating for us is that these Jesus, Jesus upset that these gentile worshipers are being impeded in their worshiper, in their prayer because all these animals and money changing, going, taking hands, all these people, it's just like this picture in your mind, sort of a chaotic environment with animals being bought and sold, money changing, being, taking place, taking place at the tables and lots of people and lots of activity and chaos everywhere.

And so, Jesus is angry that they are not being allowed to worship. Well, that is not a completely satisfying explanation for a couple reasons. First, we have good evidence to suggest to us that the outer courtyard was never considered to be a holy area. The outermost courtyard was considered to be just that, just a courtyard.

It's called the Court of the Gentiles. But that is actually a modern term. In Jesus' day, it was not known as the Court of Gentiles. It was just known as the outer court. So, modern scholars have attached the name court of the Gentiles to this because there was, as we know, there's this sign on the edge of this courtyard that that precluded any foreigner or gentile from entering into the actual courtyard or the inner courtyard.

You may have heard of this sign, arch archeologists have discovered these signs that literally say any foreigner who goes beyond this point, you do so, at your own, the risk of your own life and your own impending death is your own fault. So, we've discovered these signs, and we know that any entrance beyond this outer courtyard by a gentile or a foreigner was absolutely excluded.

So, scholars have called it the Court of the Gentiles, but it wasn't that called by that in Jesus' Day. And there's no evidence at all to suggest that this was considered by anybody. To be a holy area. Furthermore, we also know that the buying and selling and the money changing that's referenced in the passage here was said to have taken place in a smaller, sort of secluded area known as the Royal Shaw.

Now that area was sort of sec uh, sec uh, sequestered off, I'm trying to say, for the buying and selling and the money changing. And so, the area in itself wasn't consumed by all these activities. But then I think for me, the most compelling indication is just the size of the area itself. This outer courtyard was some 500 yards by 350 yards.

Now, to kind of put that in perspective, because not, not all of us are, are great at Visual Vi at visualizing spaces like this, but 500 yards by 350 yards of course equates to 1500 feet by about a thousand feet. So, picture in your mind, just an incredible area to equate this in terms of, um, Acreage, it literally translates to nearly 35 acres.

That is a massive area. This is a huge courtyard. And so, the size of the place itself lends itself to just understanding this. This wasn't considered this huge holy area. This was just what it was. It was a large outer courtyard. So, the, the idea that Jesus was angry that these gentile worshipers weren't being allowed to worship, just doesn't really hold a lot of water, because the area was so, large, the buying and selling that's referenced was sanctioned off into one area.

And furthermore, there's no evidence that the Jewish people ever considered this to be a holy spot. Anyway, so, another thought is that perhaps Jesus was angry that the people were being taken advantage of. There's the, the reference to the money changers. And the buying and selling of the, of the animals and the doves and the pigeons for the sacrifices and whatnot.

And Jesus does make that statement that you've turned this into a, uh, din of robbers. And so, oftentimes it's been supposed that Jesus was upset that the people were being taken advantage of for the prophet of the priests. And that was true. The priests, particularly the high priests, did get rich. They did get very wealthy off of this because all the money changing that took place and the selling of animals, all of that profited the priests.

And so, as the, uh, the animals were being sold, of course they were sold for a profit. Now, you could, of course, bring your own animals to sacrifice them, but those animals had to be approved by the priest to be indeed without blemish and worthy of being sacrificed. And so, oftentimes the animals that you brought just wouldn't be found to be worthy.

And oh, by the way, we do have animals that you can buy and here's our price. And so, the priest profited from all that. And so, all that is very true. It's also true that the money changing profited the priests as well. So, why were they changing money in the temple courtyard? Well, the money changers were there in order to change into the proper currency for all the worshipers to pay what's known as the temple tax that had to be paid each year by every, uh, by every Jewish man.

So, the temple tax was set in excess chapter 30 as half a shackle a year. Now, they had to pay the tax in a certain type of currency because the Roman currency wouldn't work or any of the other currencies wouldn't work because of two reasons. First of all, the Roman currency in particular was usually a currency that was made from metals that were alloys.

And so, it would be two types of metals together making what we know of as an alloy type of metal. And so, the Jewish people considered that to be a violation of the commandment. Um, and, but then the main reason was because all the Jewish coins had. An image on it. The image of Caesar, right?

Remember the story where they come to Jesus and they say, should we be paying taxes to Caesar or not? And Jesus says, show me a denarius. And he says, whose image is this? Then give it to Caesar then. So, the Roman coins had an image of Caesar, which the Jewish people considered to be idolatry of, of violation of the second commandment against grave and.

And so, for those reasons, the temple tax couldn't be put into the temple coffers in Roman coinage. There was only one currency that was, that would fit the Jewish regulations, and that was known as the Tyrian shackle. Now, Tyrian, that's just the adjective form of tire, you know, tire and siding. So, tire had a shackle that was a solid metal coin and didn't have an image of a person on it.

So, all the money to pay the temple tax had to be changed into Tyre and shackles in order to pay the tax. Now, it was usually done, well, not usually, it was always done with a fee. And scholars tell us that that fee would range between five and 12%. So, the priest profited from the changing of money as well.

So, it was profitable for the priest. And so, many people suppose that perhaps Jesus was just not happy that the people were taking, being taken advantage of. By, in essence charging them a fee to come and sacrifice animals or to pay the temple tax. Now, Jesus probably was not very happy about that, but that also doesn't seem to be the reason why he does this.

And the reason that we see that is because Jesus plainly throws out not just the sellers who, the ones, the ones taking advantage of the people, but the buyers too, the Texas plane there. So, why would Jesus, if he's angry, that the people are being taken advantage of? Why would he throw out both the buyers and the sellers the so, Jesus instead, he's, he's probably, again, not real happy that they're being taken advantage of, but that's not what's behind this.

Instead for us to see what Jesus intends, what his purpose, what his goal here is, we just, I think simply need to ask one key question. And that key question is this. Why would Jesus be seeking to cleanse or reform? The very thing that he has declared repeatedly needs to die. The very thing that he has declared needs to go away.

All the way back from chapter two. This is, uh, we, I know we're in chapter 11 of Mark now, we're sort of skipped over, but we'll see this theme carried all the way through Mark's gospel. But already in the early chapters we've seen it when Jesus has declared, of course, the patch, the new patch that doesn't fit the old garment.

It means that the new is not compatible with the old, the old system of legalistic man's man works. Righteousness has to go. Or the new wine that is not compatible with the old wine skins has to go. So, why would Jesus be interested in reforming or cleansing? Because that's the, that's the meaning of cleanse, right?

To cleanse something means that you are seeking to remove from it impurities. To restore it back to its original function. Why would Jesus be seeking to do that for an institution that he has declared repeatedly is apostate and needs to go. Instead, we will see that this is the most misnamed passage in all of the gospel incidents because Jesus is here to cleanse nothing.

I would be willing to wager that probably every Bible in the room has a subheading on this section that says something to the effect of, Jesus cleanses the temple. He's not cleansing anything. He's here to destroy it. He's here to declare it dead and buried. He's here to say, this corrupt system of works, righteousness has to.

And so, this is what Jesus is here in the temple to do. We have seen him say this from chapter early on, from chapter two with the, again, the wine skin's parable, the new patch, parable. Parable. He's going to say this plainly in chapter three in verse two. When the disciples are going to say to Jesus as they walk out of the temple, they're going to say, Jesus, look at this wonderful building.

Isn't this amazing? And Jesus is going to respond. Every stone will be torn down. There won't be two stones left together. Everyone is about to be torn down. So, what is Jesus up to and what point is he trying to make? And why is he going about it in this way? So, let's look at the text, and as we begin to look at the text, let's just put this into our mind.

Let's just remind ourself that Jesus is of course, Messiah. Jesus is king. Jesus is our great high priest. Jesus is our rescuer. Jesus is also our prophet. The scriptures teach us that Jesus is the great prophet. Deuteronomy chapter 18 tells us that when God says, I will raise up a prophet and he will speak for me, and God, of course, is pointing us not only to the prophets that would follow Moses, but to Jesus who is the great prophet.

So, Jesus is the great prophet. Now, what do prophets do? Prophets do two things. Prophets speak for God. Remember, that's what the prophets would say thus says the Lord. So, prophets speak for God, but prophets also do something else. Prophets also act out the lessons that God wants to teach. We see this happening time and time again throughout the Old Testament, there's so, many examples of the prophets acting out some lesson or some sort of truth that God wants them to act out for the people.

Just think of of Isaiah when Isaiah was told to walk barefoot in naked, or remember Ezekiel chapter four when Ezekiel was told to take the bricks and make a little miniature Jerusalem and then put that little miniature Jerusalem under siege to say, this is what is coming. Or just think of, uh, the prophet Jeremiah when Jeremiah puts the yoke on his shoulders and then the other prophet by the name of Hananiah comes and breaks the yoke.

And God says, as this yoke is broken, so, I will break Nene's yoke in so, many other instances. Think Jeremiah, who can forget the potter, the potter's, uh, the potter's flask that was broken and that whole illustration of the potter. It. That's what prophets do. They speak for the Lord, but they also act out for the Lord.

And so, this is what Jesus is here to do. He is here to act out in demonstration mode, the truth, the reality that he's been teaching since chapter two and will culminate in chapter three, which is the reality to say, this apostate man-centered works, righteousness system of hypocrisy is dead. And I'm declaring it done and through with this.

And so, when Jesus comes here, he's going to declare God's outrage or God's dissatisfaction with particularly with three things. Let's take a look in the text once again. So, he came to Jerusalem, enter the temple, and began to drive out those who, first of all sold and those who bought in the temple. So, those who are selling and buying.

Secondly, he overturned the tables of the money changers. And the seats of those who sold pigeons. Thirdly, he won't allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. So, three things that Jesus seems to be focused on. One is buying and selling, two money changing, three, carrying things through the temple.

So, these three things that Jesus seems to be opposed to, if we think about these in categories, he is opposed to the buying and selling, the money changing and carrying things through the temple, the carrying things through the temple. That's a tough one. So, some people think that maybe Jesus was not happy that some people were using the temple courtyard as a shortcut.

They were sort of making a shortcut through the temple courtyard. Jesus wasn't happy about that, so, he stopped people from carrying things through the courtyard. That doesn't make a lot of sense because it's not even said to be the Sabbath. Maybe if it was the Sabbath, but what is this about carrying things?

Well, if we think about the word here, translated. Carry anything, the word, anything. That's not the standard sort of generic word for anything. Instead, it's a word that is often associated with vessels of worship vessels that had to do with temple worship. So, he put all these three things together. Jesus stops the money changing, the selling of animals for sacrificing the buying of animals, for sacrificing and the caring of worship vessels.

In other words, Jesus is here to shut down all the activities that make the temple function. If animals are not bought and sold, then there's no sacrifices. If the temple tax is not paid, that's what supports the temple. That's what funds the temple. And then at the worship vessels, the accoutrements for worship are not carried in and out of the temple.

Then that stops the temple worship. In other words, Jesus is symbolically putting a stop. To the temple activities. Now, he's not doing that in reality. It's not like Jesus is shutting the temple down. This is all symbolic. This is metaphorical. And so, one man is not going to just shut down the temple activities, but instead what he's doing is he's symbolically attacking each thing that needs to happen in order for the temple to function.

Because Jesus is saying very loudly and very clearly, this system of man-centered works righteousness. It is an affront to God and it needs to die. So, as Jesus is acting these things out, of course he, it's, it's almost like he's putting this exclamation point and, and vivid color what God is here to say, because we know, you know, the old saying, which is true by the way that actions speak.

What louder than words, actions speak louder than words. Is that true? Actions speak louder than words. It is true. Actions do speak louder than words. However, words speak more precisely than actions. Okay? You, you see the, the relationship between the two actions can speak very loudly. Actions can make a point with an exclamation point, but words can speak precisely.

So, Jesus doesn't leave this just to actions. He doesn't just do these things. He doesn't just kick the people out and then say, there, go and interpret this on your own. Jesus will then explain his actions and he'll do it with words. So, now take a look back at our text verse, uh, 17. And he was teaching them and saying to them, that's the, IM in the imperfect.

So, we could say that Jesus was continually teaching them. He didn't just say this once. He repeated himself. He was teaching them and saying to them, is it not written? My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations, but you have made it a den of robbers. So, here is Jesus' explanation for what he did and to explain it.

He quotes from two of the prophets, the prophet Isaiah from Isaiah 56, and the prophet Jeremiah from Jeremiah seven. So, we'll look at these two quotations and this will show us exactly Jesus' meaning and what he was doing. Now, before we do that though, we should just say this. When we look at how the New Testament uses the Old Testament, sometimes it can be a little bit counterintuitive.

Have you ever read your New Testament and you come across an incident where, where somebody in the New Testament may be an epistle writer, they're writing this and they're making a point, and then they quote the Old Testament, and you ever want to say, I don't think I would've interpreted it that way. Y has that ever happened where you read how a New Testament writer either wrote a quotation or spoke it in Jesus' case from the Old Testament, and you thought, that's not exactly how I would've interpreted that Old Testament passage.

So, there is some counterintuitive aspect to how the New Testament writers and how Jesus will use the Old Testament, and scholars have done a lot of work to help us to understand the thinking process, how it is that when we read Old Testament quotes in our New Testament, how we are to understand those now.

One of the most helpful insights, I think one of the most helpful things to keep in mind as we look at. Quotations from the Old Testament in the new is this, we keep this in mind and it's this, what we often find in the New Testament is a little smidget of a quote, just a little, just a few sentences, just a few words, maybe a sentence of an Old Testament quote.

And what the person quoting that is saying is that the entire passage from which I quote this little snippet, that's what I'm talking about. So, we, we find that over and over in the New Testament. We'll find just a little, short little phrase or something that comes from the Old Testament. And what we are to think is not just that the, the, the specific words that are there, but the overall passage that was quoted, that's what the, the speaker or the writer had in mind.

Kind of like this. If I were to say something like this, if I were to. I want to make a point about God's fatherly love and God's fatherly protection towards his children. God provides for us. He protects us. He is like the good shepherd toward us. He is, he protects us against our enemies. He provides for our needs.

All these sorts of things. I might say something like this, the Lord is our shepherd, right? And what I mean by that is not just the Lord is our shepherd, but I also mean he leaves me beside still waters. He makes me lie in green pastures. He prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies, right?

I mean all those things together. But I didn't say all those things. All I said was the Lord is our shepherd. That sort of thing happens all the time in the new. A speaker or a writer will just say a little snippet. And what they mean is that whole passage is what I'm talking about right here. Okay? So, as we take a look at these two quotations from the New Testament or from from the Old Testament, the first one comes from Isaiah chapter 56.

Let's take a look at this one. First, Jesus says, from this passage, he says, is not my house to be known as, uh, known as a house of prayer for all the nations. So, when Jesus says that, that's a little snippet from Isaiah chapter 56. Let's look at the passage in its entirety. And when Jesus quotes from Isaiah, here's what he's saying.

He's saying that this temple, you've taken this temple and you've perverted it to be something it never was intended to be. You've turned it into something that's this item of exclusion that separates you from the very people that I intended to draw unto myself. I intended for the temple to draw all nations unto me.

But instead you've turned it into something completely different. And now we'll see that plainly in Isaiah's words. If you look with me in Isaiah chapter 56, beginning from verse three. So, here's what God says. Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say, the Lord will surely separate, separate me from his people.

So, very plainly, God says, let it not be said. Let the foreigner never say that he has come to be joined to the, to the true and living God, that the foreigner has been drawn to the living God and the foreigner has joined himself to God. And then somebody comes along and says, no, you be separate. That's what God said very plainly.

Let it never be said that the, the foreigner who has come to be joined to me has somebody say, no, you be. So, here plainly, very plainly, God is saying, I do not wish for my nation, for my people, for my temple to be something that excludes those foreigners or those, to use another word, Gentiles, who come seeking the true and living God.

Let the, let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say, the Lord will surely separate me from his people and let not the eunuch say, behold, I am a dry tree. So, here is a reference to this eunuch. Now eunuchs are a little bit difficult for us to understand, for us to relate to, but we find them all the time in the well, not all the time.

We find them frequently in the Old Testament. So, what we are to understand when we read about this eunuch, a eunuch was just simply a man who was castrated, A man who no longer has. The tools to be a man. He's now, uh, a male without the male genitalia. So, the eunuch was something that was quite popular in the ancient world for two reasons.

There were many Unix in the ancient world because oftentimes household servants, if they were male, would be made Unix so, as to avoid any sort of difficulties with female servants, with female household servants, or especially with the matron of the house. So, if a household servant or a household slave would often be made a Unix, so, as so, that the master of the house could avoid all those sorts of difficulties.

But then the main reason that we find lots of, of Unix in the ancient world was. A great deal of pagan worship had to do with the making of oneself to be a unit. So, oftentimes, if a, if a male was particularly devoted to a, a false deity, to a false God, they would, in their devotion to these false gods, they would make themselves Unix voluntarily as a way of saying, we are devoted to this false God.

So, there were a lot of people in the ancient world, a lot of men who were Unix by way of devotion to a false God. So, what God is saying here is, and this is staggering. What God is saying is those Unix, those who have in the past devoted themselves holy to a false God when they come to me in repentance and seek to seek to be bonded to me.

Let no one turn them away. Now look at what else God says to the Unix who, uh, he says, I'm sorry. Let not the Unix say, behold, I'm a dry tree for thus says the Lord. To the Unix who keep my sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast, my covenant, I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters.

Did you hear what God said there? To those who have in the past who and completely devoted themselves to a false God? And now they come to me, I will give them a name better than the name of sons and daughters. They will have a full place at my table. They will not have to stay outside in some exterior courtyard.

They will be given a name better than the name of sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. So, what was true of a unit? Their name was cut off, and God says to them, those who in a past life even gave themself unreservedly to false gods. When they come to me in faith and repentance, binding themself to the true and living God, they will have a place at my table.

Let no one say that they'll be cut off. I will give them an everlasting name. And then he goes on to say verse six, and the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord shall to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants. Everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it and holds fast my covenant, these I will bring to my holy mountain.

Think right there. Holy Mountain will come back to that. These I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their burn offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar. Their burn offerings, their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar. And oh, by the way, that's the altar that they are not allowed to go to because the system is now set up to exclude them from the very thing that God said.

This is what I desire. I desire that the nations, those who are from the nations, and I draw under myself, I desire that no one would keep them away. But instead they will have a name. They will have a place at my table. Their offerings on my altar will be accepted. And then here are these Jews saying, oh, no, no, no, no, you have to keep out.

Now we read furthermore, their burn offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar. For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all people. There's Jesus' quote, the Lord God who gathers the outcasts of Israel declares I will gather yet others to, to him besides those already gathered so, plainly.

Jesus quotes this in order to say this what God said through the prophet Isaiah. You are doing the polar opposite. What God said through the prophet Isaiah is that his temple, his alt alter, his holy mountain is to a, is to be a place in which all people who are drawn to him by the sovereign Lord we, they will not find anyone to say this far and no more, you can come to this outer courtyard, but you can't come inside.

Here's your place. The prophet Isaiah says, that is not to be. And so, Jesus quotes from this again to say, the meaning of this larger passage is what I'm trying to say to you. What I'm trying to say to you is that the way that you're carrying out all this nonsense about Gentiles entering upon the cost of death, he says that's completely opposed to God's intentions.

Then he goes on to quote from the prophet Jeremiah to say, and you have made this into a den of robbers. So, what he said through the prophet Isaiah is that you have turned this on its head to be this, this thing of exclusion. It was ne, it was meant to be just the opposite. Those who are drawn to the Lord are not excluded, but included.

Then when he quotes from the prophet Isaiah, his point here is that the, you have turned the temple into a place of refuge for people to find refuge and safety in their sin. So, from Jeremiah chapter seven, he quotes this one little snippet to say You've turned it into a den of robbers. But let's look at the larger context, and this will be plain because God's words are very plain Through the prophet Jeremiah and Jeremiah chapter seven, you'll, we'll all follow this very easily from verse three, thus says, the Lord of host, the God of Israel, amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place.

Do not trust in these deceptive words. This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord. See that? That's pretty plain. Do not trust in these deceptive words, and the words are, this is the temple of the Lord. In other words, we're safe, we're spiritually safe because we changed our money.

We bought the right dove, we gave the right sacrifice. We are spiritually safe because this is the temple of the Lord. But God says, do not trust in these deceptive words. Verse five, for if you truly amend your ways in your deeds, if you truly execute justice with one another, if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after the other gods to your own harm, then I'll let you dwell in this place.

In other words, God is saying through Jeremiah that you are coming to the temple, you're giving the sacrifices, you're paying whatever temple tax, you're doing all these things, and then you go out and you live just like you want to live. You treat people just like you want to treat people. You, you live in your sins, you're comfortable in your sins.

You're comfortable sinning in all kinds of ways, but we're saying, oh, this is the temple. So, I go to the temple, I give my sacrifice. I go to the temple, I pay my tax, and everything's just fine because this is the temple of the Lord, and God's saying, do not trust in the temple. Their trust is in the temple.

Their trust is in their sacrifice. And God is saying, don't trust in a temple. Don't trust in any of that. Don't think that you can live any way that you want to live. Don't think that you can have a f, a heart that's far from the Lord. Don't think that you can have a heart that scorns other people. Don't think that you can have a heart that hates other people and does whatever you want, and then just as long as you come and do your sacrifice thing, then everything's okay.

God is saying, don't trust in those words. This is, this is just like Jesus's condemnation of the Pharisees from Matthew Chapter 25; Woe to the scribes and Pharisees who clean the outside of the cup, but the inside of the cup is filthy dirty. It is like a tomb in which you have this whitewashed tombstone and on the inside of these old dead dried up bones, the Pharisees have cleaned the outside, or in other words, they go to the temple.

They do the sacrifices, they pay the tax, they do all these things. And then they live whatever the way they want to live. And they say, we're safe. We're safe because of the temple. And God says false. Now continue on verse seven, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I give that I gave of Old to your father's forever.

Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. Will you steal murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Ba’al. Go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name and say, we are delivered only to go on doing the same abominations.

You see how plain God is there? Will you just go and offer sacrifices to bail and commit murder and steal and swear falsely, and then come and stand before me in this house and say, we're. Because we offer up the right sacrifices has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes.

And there's Jesus's quote, has this house called by my name become a den of robbers in your eyes. So, Jesus is not saying here that he's not happy, that the people are being taken advantage of. And you can see that even in the analogy of the word picture, that Jesus uses a den of robbers. So, think about that.

What is a den? It's like the layer. It's like a robber's layer. So, the robbers don't steal in their den. The den is where they go after they've stolen. You see, it's plain and the word picture is clear. It's plain. Jesus is not saying, I'm unhappy that you're stealing from people here in the temple. Jesus is saying, you live wicked lives.

And then you come here to the temple and you say, everything's safe. Everything's fine. We're safe from the wrath of God because we pay the tax. We've bought the dove, we bought the lamb, we gave the right sacrifices. We came to the right feast. He continues on. Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the Lord.

Go now to my place. That was in Shiloh, where I made the name of my, where I made my, my name dwell at first and see what I did to it because of the evil of my people, Israel. So, God says, think about Shiloh, think about when they had the worship going on there at Shiloh. Same thing. What did I do to that?

Says, God, I destroyed it. And now because you have done all these things, declares the Lord. And when I spoke to you persistently, you did not listen. And when I called you, you did not answer. Therefore, I will do to this house that is called by my name in which you trust and to the place that I gave to you and your fathers just like I did in Shiloh.

And I will cast you out of my sight as I cast out all your kinsmen all, all of the offspring of efrim. So, God says, you want an example. I did the same thing in Shiloh. They made the same mistake there. They thought that they could give sacrifices and do all these ritual things and then live whatever sort of wicked lives have whatever sort of wicked heart that they wanted and everything was fine.

God says, think about them. I destroyed them too. I'll just do the same here. So, this is Jesus' point. His point is, number one, you have taken the house that's called by my name that was supposed to be a light to the nations. And you've flipped it on its head to say, oh, the nations can't come here. Only we Jews can come here.

If you try to enter into this place, you'll do so, under penalty of death. Two. Jesus says, furthermore, you have made this place a refuge for sinners, not a refuge for forgiven sinners or repentance. Sinners, a refuge for those who are safe in their sin and at peace with their sin. A refuge for them to come and say, oh, here we are safe inside the sacrifices of the temple.

And Jesus is saying, this wicked abominable system has to go. So, this is his acting out. This is his declaration. He declares these things. He speaks these things. Now take a look with me at verse 18, and the chief priest and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him. Before they feared him.

So, they hear this, they take, they take note of his words. They're going to bring this up in chapter 13. It's going to come up again at chapter 14. At his trial. They're going to say, aren't you the one who said you're going to destroy the temple? They're going to bring it up again. When Jesus is on is on the cross in chapter 15, they're going to say, oh, you said you're going to destroy the temple and raise it again.

It'll bring yourself down from the cross. So, they hear his words. They understand his words. They fear him because of his words. And now because all the crowd, I'm sorry for, they feared him because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching. Now, if we were reading this in the original Greek language, we would probably have noticed that Mark just repeated precisely the same phrase that he used in chapter one.

Remember in chapter one, when Jesus is in the synagogue. And he gives the teaching. He cast out the man with the un, cast out the unclean spirit from the man, and he gives the teaching and they say the exact same phrase. The people were astonished at his teaching because he taught as one with authority and not as their scribes.

The identical phrase is here to say this, Jesus has declared from Galilee to Jerusalem, from the synagogue to the temple. He has declared this broken system of works. Righteousness is going, I am here to put it to death. He's declared that from Galilee to Judea, from the synagogue to the temple. And the people have heard it and they have recognized it, and they have been astonished at it.

Now, verse 19, and when the evening came, they went out of the city. So, this is, this is the, the cleansing incident, I think a better word for it, is the cursing. Jesus doesn't curse, he doesn't cleanse the temple. Jesus curses the temple. He says this temple, Is completely apostate. It's an abomination to God.

It has been flipped on its head to mean something completely different than what it was ever intended to. Men mean now the sacrifices, all this was put into place by God, but it's been perverted by the people. It's been perverted from something that the sacrifices were intended to teach them of the coming Messiah, to teach them of the sacrifice of the Messiah that was to come.

And by placing faith in the sacrifices which pointed them to the Messiah, they were placing faith in God all. But what's happened is that's been completely turned around to now the faith is in the sacrifices. The faith is in the temple. And so, God says, you put your trust in the temple. Don't put your trust in the temple.

Don't come to the temple and say, we're safe. We're safe because we're doing all the right things now. So, this is the temple incident. Now let's take a look at the tree incident, the fig tree incident, which Mark is going to use to help completely, I think explain this and completely open this up for us now.

So, now let's jump back up to verse 12, verse 12. And on the following day in the King James, I think it says in the mourn, something like that. Don't, don't in that, uh, don't you wish people still talk like that today in the, in the mourn or in the following day when they came from Bethany, he was hungry and seeing in the distance of tr a fig leaf in tr a fig tree and leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it.

When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves fruit. It was not at the season for figs. And he said to it, may no one ever eat fruit from you again. And the disciples heard it. So, what in the world is going on? Jesus comes, he's hungry. Caesar victory tree goes to it, wants to get some figs, finds there's no figs on.

It is so, angry that he curses a tree and the tree is going to later die. And then Mark says, oh, by the way, it wasn't even the season for figs to begin with. What in the world is going on here? I think that anyone with. Even half open eyes can see very plainly something else is going on here. Jesus has fed thousands of people from a couple of loaves of bread and a couple of fish, and he's done it twice.

Jesus we're told in Hebrews chapter one, verse three, Jesus himself created this tree, and Jesus himself is the one who brings forth the fruit of this tree. Clearly, Jesus isn't just hungry, hoped to get a snack, and was so, disappointed that there's nothing on the tree that he just loses his patience.

Clearly, something else is going on here. Jesus, in this episode, is doing the same thing that he does in the other one, which is to act out the lesson that God is teaching us to demonstrate in visual form and acting out of what Jesus wants us to see. So, The first thing that we see is Jesus comes to the tree and he's hungry.

Now that's a little bit odd because we're told that he just came from Bethany. We would assume that from Bethany he was staying with his friend Mary and Martha and their brother Lazarus, and we know that Martha was such a good hostess that she just was preparing food while Jesus was teaching. So, we would assume that Martha didn't let Jesus leave that morning without having a good breakfast.

So, the idea that Jesus is hungry, he's not vanished, he's not on the edge of starvation. Maybe they walked from Bethany, which was a partial day walk, and maybe he's kind of getting hungry. Maybe they didn't bring enough snacks or food on the way or whatever. Maybe he's getting a little bit hungry. But the idea here is that Jesus feels hunger.

And in his hunger, he goes to this tree. So, as his hunger brings him to the tree, what Jesus is representing for us is the one who is hungry for the righteousness of God, the one whom God is drawn to himself. And that one being drawn unto God. We're told in Matthew chapter 5 0 6 Jesus' words, and the Sermon on the Mount says, the blessed be the one who hungers and thirsts for righteousness for that one will be satisfied.

So, Jesus here is representing for us the one who hungers for the righteousness of God and is being drawn unto God in their hunger for his righteousness. Now, Jesus himself said that the one who is hungry for the righteousness of God will be satisfied. But Jesus himself in this passage is not satisfied because he comes to the tree to eat and finds nothing to satisfy his hunger.

So, he sees this tree and he it it we're told that he sees it from a distance and he goes to the tree. And what about the tree attracts him is the leaves. The leaves are what attracts Jesus to go to the tree. And then Jesus is angry because the tree has leaves but no fruit. And then Mark says, and it wasn't the season anyway, so, I did a lot of reading on fig trees more than I really wanted to do.

And just to just sort of, I don't want to weary us all with all that information about, about fig trees, but here's the bottom line. The bottom line is this, for the, to be in leaf without figs meant that something was out of order. Because typically what happens with fig trees in the Middle East, fig trees here have two seasons.

There's a, I think that most fig trees here, here have a early season, and a late season in Palestine is just one. But in Palestine, the fig trees and the, the, the figs and the leaves generally come together so, that when you see the fig tree in leaf, it also will have figs at least beginning to grow on it.

Okay, so, something here is out of order. So, Jesus sees it, he sees the fig leaves, and he's drawn to it because it seems to be saying to him, Come and eat. Come and eat. Come and satisfy your hunger. Come unto me and satisfy your hunger. Jesus goes to it and finds that it's completely unsatisfying because there's nothing on it, and then he curses it.

So, Mark here seems to be rather preoccupied with fig leaves. What in the world do fig leaves mean in scripture? You ever ask yourself, what, what do fig leaves mean in scripture? What's the symbolic meaning of fig leaves? You know, fig leaves actually only show up in our Bibles an extremely rare number of times.

So, they obviously, they show up here, Mark's talking about fig leaves. Notice how he's sort of centered on the, the fact that the tree head leaves, but. We also see it in Matthew's parallel account. Matthew 21. Fig leaves are going to show up one more time in Mark's gospel, chapter 13, when Jesus revisits the same subject to tell the parable of the Barron fig tree that had leaves but no figs.

Okay, so, we see it here, the parallel account, a soon to come parable about the same thing and nowhere else in all the Bible. Will you ever read of a fig leaf except one place? Anybody know where that is? Genesis? Yes. Genesis chapter three. Check me with your concordance if you like. Check me on anything if you like, but check me on the con.

The only other place in all of scripture, you will find figs. You'll find fig trees. You will not find fig leaves mentioned anywhere except Genesis chapter three. Now, Genesis chapter three, we don't need to understand Genesis chapter, chapter three to understand this, but it sure helps. It shines a, an extra light on this.

It puts it into vivid color. So, let's remind ourself of what's going on in Genesis three. In Genesis chapter three, the man and the woman have sinned and we're told prior to their sin that the man and woman were naked and they were not ashamed, but then they eat of the fruit, they have sinned. And then what changes?

What changes is now they're still naked, but now they are ashamed and God comes into the garden and he calls for Adam. Adam hears God coming and he hides from God. Why? Because he was naked and ashamed. And so, God comes and he calls for Adam. Where's Adam? Adam's hiding. And he comes and God says, where were you?

He says, I was hiding because I was naked and I was ashamed. Who told you you were naked? Did you, you know the fruit? The woman gave me the fruit and I ate. Then comes the curse upon sin, right? And through all of that, we read in verse 11 there that the man and the woman did what they sewed fig leaves together because they were naked and ashamed.

So, what the fig leaves are in Genesis three is man's first attempt at false religion. The fig leaves are works religion, because that's what works. Religion is, is doing something to cover the shame of our sin before God. And it can be anything of, of a thousand different. But doing something, whether it be go to mass, go to confession, attend a church regularly, uh, or some would say, have their name on the role of a church or do this good de or what's becoming more and more popular today is to just be a nice person, be a tolerant person, tolerate divergent views, whatever it may be.

You can fill in the blank, but anything that you do to cover the shame of your sin before God is works. Religion and the very first works religion was the loin cloth from fig leaves because God came and the man and the woman knew that they had reason to now feel shame, and so, they tried to cover their shame with their own efforts at these fig leaves.

Then we, we learned later in the story, after God pronounces the curse. God. Then in verse 25, we're told that God himself said to them, these leaves will never work. And so, God himself fashions loincloths for them from animal skins. So, two things that teaches us. Number one, sin always requires a death. The wages of sin are death.

So, sin always requires a death. The leaves weren't going to work. An animal had to die in order to have the skin to cover. So, that's the first thing. The second thing is God must do it. We're told specifically God made the loin cloth for them. Their fig leaves weren't going to work. Can you imagine underwear made out of fig leaves?

How long that's going to last? That just wasn't going to work. God says, this is what I must do. An animal must die and I must fashion your covering for you. So, that's the first presentation there of the gospel To say works' righteousness will not cover your shame. God himself must cover your shame and he has to do it through a sacrifice.

Now, fast forward all the way to the New Testament, to the next time fig leaves appear, and the next time fig leaves appear, they appear where? On a tree that invites the hungry Jesus to come and be satisfied with my fruit. Come and eat of my fruit and satisfy yourself. And Jesus comes and there's no fruit.

Do you see the connection? That's what the temple has been saying. Come, come. Those who are hungry for the righteousness of God come and eat of our fruit, and they come and there's no fruit. There's nothing but empty works. Righteousness. There's nothing but empty sacrifices. There's nothing but empty hypocrisy in a den of robbers who are saying, we are safe because we do the right sacrifices.

We're safe because we have the right coins. And Jesus says, be damned. This system of hypocrisy, the system of apostate religion. And so, he curses the tree, and then we know that the next day the disciples come and the tree is dead showing us, we were told from the roots up, it withered from the roots. What does that say to us?

That says to us that this tree didn't die from some atmospheric. This tree didn't die because it had some sort of fig tree disease. This tree died because God killed it. The parallel to this, of course, is going to come in Mark chapter 13, verse two. When Jesus says, you see this temple, not a single stone is going to be left on this temple.

The other parallel, of course, is the curtain. Jesus is here to say, this fig tree is dead. This temple is dead because I'm here now. And after his sacrifice is complete, the temple veil will be torn from top to bottom to show that God did it. Not a person, just like the tree has withered from the roots up to show that God did it, not a person.

All of this is pointing to the death of the temple, which will come a few decades after Jesus's sacrificial. In, in the same sort of way, Israel, Jerusalem, the temple, was not burned to the ground because Romans army, the Roman army, was stronger than the Israeli whites. The temple was burned to the ground because God did it.

Because God said, this system, you've taken it. It was intended to teach you of the coming Messiah. Messiah has come and you perverted the system, you've turned it on its head. Now it's done. And so, Jesus pronounces the curse, just like the curtain, let's torn him to. Now, in the same way, actions speak louder than words, but words speak more precisely than actions.

So, Jesus will also explain this one. So, drop down to verse 20. As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. And Peter remembered and said to him, rabbi, look, the fig tree that you cursed has wizard withered. Look, Jesus. You remember, this is the same tree. Jesus. Th this is the same tree.

You cursed this tree yesterday. Now look at it, it's dead. To which we would expect Jesus to respond by saying, okay, Peter, let me explain to you what that meant. I'm Messiah. I am here to replace this false system of, of hip, uh, uh, hypocrisy, this false system of works righteousness. And I'm going to do so, on the cross in just a few days.

We might expect Jesus to say that, but he doesn't say that. So, Peter says, look the trees that you cursed as dead. And then Jesus responds with these words, which might sound to us like a little bit of a puzzle. Verse 22, verse 22. Jesus answered them. Have faith in God. Have faith in God. Peter, truly, I say to you, whoever says to a mountain, be taken up and thrown under the sea, does not doubt in his heart, but believe what he says will come to pass.

That'll be done for him now. What we often take this section to mean is this. Peter says to Jesus, wow, Jesus, that tree actually did die and it did so, in a day. And Peter answers, I mean, sorry. Uh, Jesus answers Peter to say, you see Peter, that's faith. That's what faith will do for you. If you have faith, then you too can curse big trees.

You too can even do bigger things like throw mountains into the sea. That's how we often take that passage has nothing to do with what Jesus is saying. What Jesus is saying is he's answering Peter's question. Peter's question is, in essence, the tree is dead. Jesus, what does this mean? Jesus's answer what this means, Peter, is the kingdom of God is not a kingdom of fig trees.

The kingdom of God is a kingdom of faith. You have been coming to God through fig leaves, through sacrifices. But I'm here to tell you, you come to God through faith, which is always how God's people have always come to people, have never come to God in any other way other than faith. Genesis 15, Abraham believed God and God countered it to him as righteousness.

So, Jesus is not saying this is something new. You used to come to God through sacrifices. Now you come to God through faith. People have always come through faith, but pe But Jesus is here to say, this is what, this is the correction that I've done. Have faith in God. Faith in God is how you come to God. So,, uh, Jesus will explain to Peter now four characteristics of the, of the kingdom of God.

Four characteristic number. Is faith characterizes the disciple. Faith is how the disciple comes to God. You don't come to God by faith and sacrifices or faith in a temple or faith in a shackle. You come to God through faith in him. Abraham believed who God and God counter to him as righteousness. Number two, faith will displace the old broken system of works righteousness.

So, look what Jesus says next. And Jesus answered him, have faith in God. Verse 23, truly I say to you or verily or amen. Amen. I say to you, whoever says to this mountain be taken up and thrown into the sea and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him.

So, here's our famous faith moves mountains passage. Is that what Jesus said? Did Jesus say If you have faith, your faith can move mountains? Because that's what we say. Every one of us in the room, all of us, we are steeped. In modern evangelical culture in the saying, faith can move mountains. Is that what Jesus said?

Let's look closely at what Jesus says because he said it plainly. He didn't mince his words. We don't need to know any Greek. We don't need to do, do any word studies. He said it plainly. Look at it in, look at the text in English. Truly. I say to you, whoever says to what? This mountain, this one, not to any mountain, not to any generic mountain.

If you have faith, then you can move mountains and throw them in the sea. That's not what Jesus said. He said, whoever has faith can say to this mountain, what's this mountain? Context? Context. Context. The context is the mountain of works. Righteousness that Jesus is here to put away.

The mountain is this system that those who have hungered for the righteousness of God have come to and been unsatisfied. That's the mountain that Jesus says, faith kills that mountain. Faith throws that mountain into the sea. Jesus is drawing a comparison here. It's like he wants to compare two mountains.

That's why we made note of the Isaiah passage when, when God says, come up to my mountain, we could look at a whole myriad of Old Testament texts that will say similar things to us. For example, we could look at Isaiah chapter two, or we could look at Micah chapter four in verse one. It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of all the mountains.

It shall be lifted up above the hills and people shall flow to it. Does that sound like all the nations will come to me? So, it's like Jesus wants to draw this comparison, this contrast between the mountain of works righteousness and the mountain of true faith in God. And he's saying here, the faith is what displaces that false mountain of dead works under God.

The the biblical imagery here is consistent. Remember what the woman at the whale asked Jesus in John chapter four, and Jesus answers and says, listen, I'm, I'm here to tell you neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will true worshipers come to God. So, the imagery is consistent. The imagery of the mountain or we, or we could look at Galatians chapter four, where Paul draws the contrast between Sarah and Hagar and he says, one is a system of dead works and the other is the righteousness that leads to faith, not the righteousness that's ours, but the righteousness of Christ that's given to us.

It's the same contrast that he is that is drawn here. And he says, if you have faith, then this mountain will be rooted up and done what? Thrown into the sea. There's three things thrown into the sea in Mark's gospel, chapter five, the herd of pigs in which Jesus allowed the demons to go into Chapter nine.

Jesus said, it'll be better for those who would cause little ones to stumble, to have a millstone tied around your neck and thrown into the sea. And now the third and final reference to being cast into the sea, when Jesus says the mountain of works, righteousness will be cast into the sea by the faith of my people.

So, this is the imagery that Jesus is using as he curses the tree. And then he, and then he, uh, I'm sorry, but let me just, let me finish that thought on the, the, the faith that moves mountains. So, Jesus here in this passage is plainly, he's not saying to us that if you have faith, your faith can move mountains.

But is that what the Bible says to us? Does the Bible say to us that if we just have enough faith that the mountains of our life can be moved? So, there's three places that the New Testament will speak of. Faith and relocating mountains. This is one, and we see plainly in the context here. What Jesus is saying is faith will move this mountain, the mountain of works, righteousness.

The other place that it shows up is in Matthews 17 when the disciples cannot cast out the demon and they come to Jesus. And Jesus says, if you just have faith the size of a mustard seed, then you can say to this mountain, be uprooted and cast into the seed. It'll be done. And that passes. Jesus uses the exact same phrase, Jesus says, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, be uprooted and cast into the seed.

So, in that context, Jesus is saying, faith will uproot the mountain of the opposition of evil against my people. That's plainly what Jesus is saying. He's not saying, you know, if you have faith, then you can move any mountain you want. He's saying, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, it'll move this mountain, the mountain of the opposition of the kingdom of God against my people.

If you have faith, then your faith will move the other mountain, which is the mountain of works righteousness that has kept people who are seeking me from finding me. And the third place we see it is in First Corinthians, chapter 13, the chapter on love in which Paul says, if I have faith that can move mountains but have not love, I have nothing.

So, Paul's saying there, even if you have the faith that displaces works, righteousness, even if you have that kind of faith and you don't love your brother, that's still of nothing. So, please listen carefully. And I really, I don't want to reign on anybody's parade,

but does the Bible teach us that if you just have enough faith, you can move the mountains in your life? No. Here's what the Bible does teach us. The Bible teaches us that faith brings us to God and when we are in Christ, then God takes the mountains of our life and he uses them for our good. That's what the Bible teaches.

The Bible does not teach you that if you have enough faith, you can move the mountain of the car repair bill that you don't have the money for. Or if you have enough faith, you can move the mountain of the rebellious child. Or if you have enough faith, you can move the mountain of the boss who hates you.

The Bible teaches us that faith does move specific mountains, the mountain of works, righteousness that cannot bring you to God, and it can move the mountain of the opposition of the enemy. Remember what we said last week, Satan is bound as regards God's people. Satan cannot keep you from God. But the generic mountains, the obstacles of our life.

The Bible does not teach you that with enough faith you can throw them into the sea. But the Bible teaches you that God is bigger than all of those, and he has a good purpose in every one of them. And he might take them out of your way. He might take you right straight through them, or he might make you climb over the top of them.

Either way, it's for your ultimate, eternal good if you are in Christ. So, lastly, let's look at the last two descriptions. First. This is a people of faith and the faith of this people. This is the kingdom of God. The faith of this people is a faith that displaces this misplaced faith and works righteousness.

Number three, Jesus says this, verse 24. Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours in other. In Jesus' day and prior to Jesus' day, it was a common understanding that prayers lifted up in the temple were better than prayers lifted up elsewhere.

If you really wanted to pray effective prayers, you needed to come to the temple because in the temple you could give your sacrifice and you could burn the incense and everything. The priest would burned the incidents and your prayers would be extra heard. And Jesus here to say no. The kingdom of God is a kingdom of people who have access to the master, and the master loves to hear from them wherever they may be.

There is no special place that you go and pray. There's no special circumstance. You don't need a priest to burn incense to make sure that your prayers are heard because the kingdom of God's people are a people who have the ear of the Lord and they talk to their master knowing that he's heard them.

Knowing that there needs to be no intercessor between them and the Lord other than our Messiah, Jesus Christ. And then fourthly, Jesus says this, and whenever you stand praying, forgive if you have anything against anyone so, that your father also, who is in heaven, may forgive your trespasses. The kingdom of God's people is a people who have received forgiveness and freely give forgiveness.

So, this is the answer to Peter's question. Jesus, this tree, what in the world, this thing really did die? And Jesus' answer is, I cursed that tree to teach you of the deadness of this temple, of this whole system of dead sacrifices. Because Messiah is here and the strong man is here, and he is throwing out the illegitimate king.

He's throwing out the illegitimate. To establish my people. And my people are a people who know me By faith, my people are a people whose faith has displaced from their heart. This false faith and works righteousness. They take no credit of themself. They, they find no righteousness of their own. As Paul's going to say in Philippians chapter three, our righteousness is the righteousness of another.

They are a people who know that they have the ear of their father, and there are people who being forgiven, they forgive others. This is the people of the Lord. And so, this is the final point for us, is that this temple and his perverted system of man-centered works righteousness. This will never again be the place in which God's people see as the place to come to God.

To find God. It's never again the focal point of God's people. Instead, the kingdom is now God's people who are redeemed by faith. And so, the references in our scriptures of the people of God as the temple of God, as the dwelling place of God. There are so, many. Here's just a few. First Corinthians chapter three.

Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's spirit dwells in you? First Corinthians 12, verse 27. Now, if you are the body of Christ and individually members of it, second Corinthians six, in verse 16, we are the temple of the living God. As God said, I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God and they shall be my people.

Ephesians two and verse 22. In Him, you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. Lastly, verse Peter chapter two, verse four and five, as you come to him, a living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves, like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood.

And we could go on. But the point here is this. Mark's first. Readers would've read these words at a time, most likely when the smoke was still rising from the temple ruins, that the temple in Jerusalem had been sacked, burned to the ground, just in recent memory. And so, Mark's words to them, Jesus' words to them through Mark, are this.

That was never where I was. That was intended to teach you of how you come to me, but that was never the actual way that you do come to me. Instead, my people have always been a people who are received by faith. And so, a temple that's burned to the ground means nothing. It means nothing for my people. And so, this is the takeaway for Mark's readers and for us today.

Just as a reminder, God's people have always been a people. Who know him by faith and know him by the righteous works of another, not our own, but people who know that we have a father our father's ear at all times. And a people having been forgiven are quick to forgive others.