Mark talk 1

‘Jesus is now the true meeting place for God and Man because the Old Temple will be destroyed!’
Intro to Sermon
This week we are moving on from our series on Ephesians and are continuing for the next four weeks or so in Mark’s gospel. These sections of Mark’s gospel continues our series we have titled ‘encounters with Jesus’. And looking at Jesus life is particularly appropriate, as we approach Easter.

Now just as a reminder, the gospel of Mark is a fast paced read, Mark wrote with an intensity and brevity like he was a man who had somewhere else to be. But at the heart of his writing is a concern that we as readers would know Ch 1:1 ‘The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God’. And Mark will convey this message by continually challenging us, through presenting these ‘encounters with Jesus’, and then demanding we answer the question Jesus asks of those who meet him, the question of ‘who do you say that I am?’ Ch 8:29. And that’s the question Mark asks of us even today, ‘who do you personally, think Jesus is?’

So as we look at this particular encounter with Jesus in chapter 11 we are going to be challenged personally as to our view of him, do we really understand him properly? Do we understand what he came to do properly? Because we will be incredibly challenged by Jesus actions as to who we really think this Jesus is.

This is no Jesus in a manger, this is no Jesus meek and mild. This day Jesus gets up and decides to go out and intentionally pick some fights – and definitely not in a meek and mild way, you know the meek and mild kind of like the way the movies of Jesus life tend to present him – like some sought of Shakespearean actor with an Oxbridge accent. Where ‘Sir I bite my thumb at you sir’.

This ‘encounter with Jesus’ is a little more Martin Scorsese, this encounter is gritty and aggressive and intense, it’s ‘Are you talking to me!, Are you talking to me!’.



This encounter is an intense and intentional confrontation as Jesus the King of Israel, God’s King, despises the sinfulness and selfishness of God’s people…. But before this particular encounter, Jesus warms up with an odd type of encounter of a confrontation with a fig tree.
Jesus picks a fight with a tree – part I
11:12 The next day as they were leaving Bethany,
Jesus was hungry.
13 Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs.
14 Then he said to the tree,
"May no one ever eat fruit from you again."
And his disciples heard him say it.

So the days starts with Jesus setting out from his base at Bethany and heading towards Jerusalem, and again to the temple in particular. But on the way he seems to be way laid by being hungry. And you kind of wonder to yourself why the Son of God wouldn’t have thought to eat breakfast before he left home. But instead he decides to see if he can find some fruit upon a fig tree that is in full leaf.

This fig tree is in such full leaf you can see it from a distance, it looks good and inviting and impressive , but when Jesus got up close he found the tree to be barren, devoid of any fruit.

And Jesus response is quite unexpected, I mean really unexpected, because he curses the tree.. In essence we know from the bit that follows, that he kills the tree through his curse. And part of you is kind of thinking, that looks a little petulant doesn’t it? And I’m pretty certain that is what the disciples looking on would have thought!

I mean V13 tells us that ‘it was not the season for figs’, why would he condemn the tree?

Well we’ll leave that question to the side for the minute, because that is what Mark makes us do by the way he has written this encounter. So the story moves on, and now Jesus picks another fight – this time with a crowd.

Jesus picks a fight with a crowd
11:15 On reaching Jerusalem,
Jesus entered the temple area
and began driving out those who were buying and selling there.
He overturned the tables of the money changers
and the benches of those selling doves,
16 and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts.
17 And as he taught them, he said,
"Is it not written:
"'My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations'?
But you have made it 'a den of robbers.'"

So in this section of the story Jesus ‘reaches’ Jerusalem, he gets to his destination as he arrives at the temple, and ominously, we remember that the last place he ‘reached’ was the fig tree, so your suspicions are that this is not going to end well.

So Jesus reaches the temple – the place where the God of Israel met with his people, the dwelling place of God on earth – if we can use that language, knowing that no place could house the God of all creation. So then Jesus finds himself in the temple area, which of course is the outer court of the temple, called the court of the Gentiles. It was the part of the temple where the nations were allowed to go and meet with God. And Jesus finds it full of clutter.

Now the clutter is in itself important for the people who come to the temple, to enable them to offer to God what is fitting under the old covenant. They came to offer sacrifices for sin and money to repair the temple, clearly a right response for a sinful people who now serve the living God.

But all this religious paraphernalia, as essential as it is, should be outside the temple court, and not blocking the way of the Gentile people who have come to meet with this living God of Israel.

If it was on the outside of the temple courts however, you do wonder whether the Jewish authorities, the Sanhedrin, would have had as strong of a monopoly on the market, if they had markets outside like they were supposed to, they would have surely lost money.

And Jesus in amazing act, picks another fight! And he does it by dramatically overturning tables and benches all through the temple court area. Now if you’re in the temple court, you’d think what is wrong with this guy?

Can you imagine being a disciple standing there and watching this unfolding?
What would you have made of it?
I suspect you’d be thinking this guy has finally lost it hasn’t he?

Irrespective of what they thought, he would have got everyone’s attention! And then for his follow up, he teaches them… teaches them…

But Jesus does teach them, and he begins with this emphatic statement, ‘Is it not written..’. Jesus commences his ‘lesson’ for these people based upon the theological truth of the utter trustworthiness of the scriptures, the utter reality of these words of promise. This is an utter trustworthiness of what has been spoken by the prophets of the past, because they are in fact God’s words. Jesus shows a confidence in God’s word that gives us confidence doesn’t it?

But as we continue in Mark, Jesus in the most unusual classroom lesson, teaches the crowds from two sections of Old Testament scripture that we had read for us earlier from Isaiah and Jeremiah.

Isaiah 56:6-7 ‘v6: And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant—
7 these 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 peoples. ‘

In short Jesus lesson seems to be about castigating the temple Jews for their casual and indifferent attitude to the Gentiles meeting with the God of Israel. This nation that was to become a light to the nations, that the nations may be drawn to the living God, they would rather protect their money making monopoly, than make way for the Gentile believers to be saved.

Jesus passionate desire, a desire that would consume his own life, is that the nations would have access to the God of Israel, the God of all creation.

And in Jeremiah 7:9-11 ‘9 Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, 10 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 all these abominations? 11 Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the Lord. ‘.

Again Jesus lesson here seems to be about the Jewish unjustified confidence in their position before God. In the same error of their fathers in an earlier generation, they have mistaken a impressive building as being an assurance of their good standing with their God.


They are feeling secure in themselves because of material wealth and comfort and the grandeur of their ‘house of the Lord’. This same Lord who sees and despises their sinful hearts and actions. A Lord who can’t be bought out with a cheap offer of a heartless sacrifice to cover over consciously hypocritical lives.

Jesus is not impressed by religious superficiality.

So Jesus lesson has had the desired effect, and Jesus has picked his fight, and the Jewish leaders have not missed the intended slight against them. So we read in V18.

18 The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this
and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him,
because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.
11:19 When evening came, they went out of the city.


They heard it, and they know what has to happen next. But Jesus knew before they did, because three times already in this gospel story he has predicted his own death.

Now it is interesting, that because of the Jewish leaders interaction with Jesus in this Encounter, it has caused them ‘to Fear’. Through out the gospel story, people meet Jesus and they ‘fear’, they are ‘afraid’, like the apostle’s in the boat in Ch 4 or the people after the healing of the demoniac in Ch 5. People see that when Jesus acts, it is unquestionably the power of God at work in his world. Jesus is someone to be feared, he is not one to be trifled with. IN this encounter, he is anything but Jesus meek and mild.

But what do you say?
Is Jesus someone to be feared?
Jesus the one who has burning desire for the lost of the nations?
Jesus who is not impressed by religious superficiality?
But what do you say?

Anyway this encounter leaves no one who saw it in any doubt, Jesus has changed the religious landscape forever, he is the undisputed Authority when it comes to the God of Israel, not the Jewish leaders.

And so Jesus leaves Jerusalem, and then we learn the fate of the fig tree.
Jesus picks a fight with a tree – part II – the reckoning
11:20 In the morning, as they went along,
they saw the fig tree withered from the roots.
21 Peter remembered and said to Jesus,
"Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!"

SO the fate of the fig tree is made clear, it has been withered at the roots, much the same as the plants that came from seeds in shallow ground in the parable Jesus told of the sower in Mark Chapter 4. The tree that Jesus has cursed has been expired, and again we see the miraculous power of God at work in the actions of Jesus. You see, Jesus really, and I mean really!! Is someone to be feared.. He is the raw power of God at work in His world.

This is the only miracle of Jesus recorded in the gospels that is a cursing, and we start to think why would he do this, it seems to make him look a little petulant. But in a typical way in Mark’s gospel, they way he has told the story, has helped us to interpret the story, the fig tree episode, sits either side of the temple episode and it has the effect of being like and enacted parable. As surely as Jesus has condemned the Fig tree to destruction, for having the outward appearance of health and not producing any fruit, the temple in same way is certain to be condemned.

The fig tree met its creator and it wasn’t prepared. It hadn’t done it’s God given job of producing fruit. And in the same way, the Founder of the temple, the God of Israel, the saving God, had come to his temple and neither was it ready. The Jewish people had not done their God appointed Job of being a light to the nations. They also had no fruit, and so the temple would be destroyed.

And it was in AD70, just 40 or so years after Jesus uttered these words of promise.

The creator has become the judge and the curser of disobedient life.

Is this Jesus meek and mild, or is this Jesus someone to be feared?
Who do you say that he is?

But we know the temple was to be replaced, by a much better way.

But before it can be replaced, Jesus is going to pick one more fight today.
Jesus picks a fight with a mountain
11:22 "Have faith in God,"
Jesus answered.
23 "I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain,
'Go, throw yourself into the sea,'
and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.
24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer,
believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
25 And when you stand praying,
if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him,
so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins."

Jesus encourages his hearers here, that faith in God will express itself in prayer. Faith in a God of power, a God who can both create the world, re create people and dismantle mountains, and he does it all without opposition.

So in this encounter, we see Jesus tell this disciples that even a mountain, can be thrown into the see by prayer. But when he says ‘this mountain’ the question remains, which mountain. Now it seems given the geography outlined in the story there are two likely candidates.

The first option is the mount of olives, which without going into the detail you can find in commentaries, seems the less likely option to me. The second option which is mount Zion seems more likely given the context of the story. You see I suspect Jesus is telling them, it won’t just be the temple building that he will move, but the whole mountain. This seems to be a promise of the great end times activity of God in both judgment and recreation.

This amazing statement about the mountain being moved, seems to be the grounds that Jesus gives for bringing our prayers to a powerful God. It seems likely to me that we pray because Jesus has now replaced the old way of this mountain and the temple. And because of this we are able to bring these prayers to our God with belief about the response.

Now if your anything like me, at the point you read these verses you have nightmarish visions of an early morning TV evangelist claiming these words as some sought of all powerful divine good luck charm to reach out and touch the TV and be healed. And in light of this kind of uncomfortableness and uncertainty from our own experience it seems to me there are two main ways, we can lead ourselves into error by misunderstanding the meaning and role of these verses.

And both these errors tend to come from our own real life experience of expecting ‘big prayers’ to be answered, and y’now what I suspect that I don’t need to tell you that sometimes it seems to us that they aren’t!

Firstly, the danger of thinking if only I had enough faith when it seems our prayer hasn’t been answered as we wanted. In these verses when it talks about ‘faith’ in God, it describes ‘faith’ as a quality not a quantity. What it means is you believe God who is powerful and you trust that he is good to answer your prayer. The prayer is based on us trusting God. It isn’t dependent on us having a really big trust in God, It is focusing on us a having a true trust in a really big God!

I’ll say that again, this verse dependent on us having a really big trust in God, It is focusing on us a having a true trust in a really big God! We are called to believe God and trust in his power, not base our prayers upon our confidence.
And secondly, the danger of thinking if only God cared enough about my prayer. I mean it is a big promise isn’t it, he says he will move the mountain, and I only want him to move this kidney stone, or even worse maybe this tumour.

It’s a big issue for us to get our heads around as Christian’s isn’t it?
It’s the kind of thing, that when it doesn’t happen as you want, well people can easily be tempted or duped into giving away their Christian faith altogether.

This text is wanting to encourage us to approach God, our God, the all powerful God, who is also, our father in prayer. And to do this trusting in his goodness, much like Ephesians last week where we are to pray to the God who can ‘do more immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power..’.

But many people use this text as the one text to rule them all when it comes to God’s teaching to us on prayer, they ‘proof-text’ the passage like it is the sum total of all the Bible’s teaching on prayer. There are a number of reasons as to why it isn’t, but I think two in particular stand out.

So from the text, We are to approach God and not doubt.. but some mountains look pretty big when you stand in front of them.
It seems to me there are two BIG mountains that a Christian can personally face in this world that would implore us to pray.
- Firstly, chronic illness or physical incapacity
- Secondly, An untimely or premature death.
And there are two BIG, and I mean Big test cases as to why this text in Mark is not the one text to rule them all.

Firstly, Paul. Paul had some form of chronic incapacity or even illness, we aren’t sure exactly what it was, but three times he prayed that to God that he would take it away from him. And God didn’t (and you can read about it @ Cor 12:8).
So according to this verse DO you think Paul lacked faith?
Which if Paul did, what does that say for your and my chances!!

But God’s answer to Paul, was ‘my grace is sufficient for you’. God was good to Paul and heard his prayer, but for reasons that are not yet revealed to us, he did not answer it as Paul asked.

The second mountain that any Christian can face, is an untimely death (well any death really) but in particular an untimely death. And Jesus himself had one of those.
It is beyond ridiculous to ask whether he didn’t have enough faith! But when he prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, he prayed for ‘your will be done’ to God his father, and you can read about that in Mark 14:36.

You see this text from Mark gives us confident reasons to pray to our God, but we need to acknowledge that this side of seeing God face to face, some things of the mind of God remain his alone. We pray confidently, knowing his power and determination to work in all things for the good of those who love him (Rom 8:28). But also this side of the new creation, we sometimes need to stop and trust God, knowing that his ways are not mans ways, in fact his ways are higher than man’s ways, as far as the sky is above the sea as we read in Isaiah 55.

The teaching of the Bible on prayer is much wider and deeper than what Mark 11 tells us, but what Mark 11 tells us is true. That we are able to boldly pray for our powerful of God to act in his world and in our lives. Remembering of course, the SIGNIFICANT challenge to forgive others as we have ourselves been forgiven by a generous God.

Who do you say that Jesus is?
Mark tells us he is the powerful Son of God, who he himself entrusted himself to God the father in prayer, in spite of the difficulty it brought to him in his innocent death. Jesus did this because of his burning desire to see the people of all nations being saved and not excluded (that’s you and me by the way).

And Jesus did it by picking a fight with the religiously superficial of age, to clear the way for us, but to also warn us of the dangers of a wrong placed confidence before God.

The only safe footing is to trust in Jesus, the true meeting place of God and man, the one who has done away with the temple, and the one who enables us to boldly approach God in prayer for our concerns. So why don’t we do that now.