APR 2 2023 | Palm Sunday: Of Donkeys, Figs and Mountains – Mark 11

Sea Change Church · APR 2 2023 | Palm Sunday: Of Donkeys, Figs and Mountains – Mark 11
Mark 11
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

And began to cast out them That sold and bought in the temple And overthrew the tables of the money changers And the seats of them that sold doves And in the morning they passed by They saw the fig tree dried up from the roots And Peter calling to remember Saith unto them Master Behold the fig tree which thou cursed Is withered away And Jesus answering Saith unto them Have faith in God For verily I say unto you That whosoever shall say unto this mountain Be thou removed And be thou cast into the sea And shall not doubt in his heart But shall believe That those things which he saith Shall come to pass He shall have whatsoever he saith Therefore I say unto you What things soever ye desire When ye pray Believe that ye receive them And ye shall have them And when ye stand praying Forgive If ye have ought against any That your Father also Which is in heaven May forgive you your trespasses But if ye do not forgive Neither will your Father Which is in heaven Forgive your trespasses The word of the Lord Thin hent Good morning and happy Palm Sunday.

I'm Elliot Stearns. I teach Bible studies here. And I hope you can come. I have one starting in the 17th. We're continuing on Romans chapter 8. An exciting study indeed. This is Palm Sunday, as I say. And when Pastor Adam asked if I'd take the sermon here, that was great. I thought, well, you know, I taught. I was up here five years and eight days ago teaching on Palm Sunday.

And I thought, well, I'll just take my notes from last time. I'll just blow them off and I'll just present the same sermon. And I sort of feel the Lord's frown there. The Lord wants a fresh word each Sunday, doesn't he? And we're new. We've grown from the last five years. We've grown as a church. We've grown up individually in the knowledge and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He wants us to have something each day sufficient under the day. He wants us to have something of life from him. And I think we need something of life from the Lord on Palm Sunday in 2023, just as much as we needed it back in 2018. It's important, therefore, that we get into the word and explore it and say, what are you trying to say to us today?

There's a, I love a saying that is, Michelangelo has. He said that he was given a commission to make a statue. And he took this block of marble and he said, I saw the angel in the marble and I carved until I set it free. And that's exactly what we should do with the word of God. When we look, when we're given something of the word of God, we come to the word of God and we look at it and we say, what is this saying?

You have there in your notes the questions that are raised here. This is chapter 11 of Mark, Mark 11. And this is a story of Jesus going to the temple and casting out the money changers. We know that story from Matthew and Luke as well. But Mark's version is kind of unique and kind of deep, actually. So we look at this chapter, Mark 11. We look at the, and you see the questions here.

There's a, there's a colt. Well, in the other gospels, he rides on a colt also. There's the loosing of the colt. There's the garments put on the colt. There's the, but then we have something unique here as well. He comes and he curses this fig tree. What's he doing with cursing this fig tree? And why? And then he casts out the money changers and Peter comes to him about the fig tree.

And he says, no, why'd you do that? And, and, and, and Jesus launches into a, a, a little message on faith. What's faith have to do with it? And so we want to look at this, go through it line by line. Well, not line, we don't have the time for that, but just to recognize that every little thing in scripture has a meaning and is important. It's important that there, that the donkey that Jesus sent the two disciples to get was tied up near a doorway.

It's important that it was located at the junction of two streets. It's important that that dialogue took place with the owner that loosed it. And it's important that the garments of the disciples were put on the back of the donkey and that Jesus rose, rose, walked, walked through it, walked with it down into Jerusalem. It's important to see the reaction and the responses of the people to Jesus and their acclaim for him.

So the story is basically this. We have a, we have four days described in this chapter and we'll just go through those four days real quickly. In the first day, Jesus asked two disciples to go get the donkey and bring it to him. They do. And then he rides on the donkey into Jerusalem. And in the other gospels, he goes into the temple at that time, casts out the money changers, but in Mark's version of it, he doesn't do that.

He goes into the temple and it says that he, parableco, plepo, he looked very carefully. He studied this whole situation, looked around and studied what was going on there and then left. But the second day takes place and Jesus comes from Bethany. Bethany was a favorite place for him to, to spend the time. It was a place where Martha, Mary and Lazarus lived.

He probably took time there, refreshed himself and came back on day two and comes in and he's hungry. And he sees a fig tree and he, from afar off, that's important also, but he sees the fig tree and he goes to it looking for figs. And he sees a bunch of leaves, but he can't find any figs. Disappointed, he just says, but he says, may no man eat of thee forever.

And then the disciples, it says the disciples heard that. And then he goes into the temple and he casts out the money changers and those who are buying and selling and so forth. And you know the story there. And then he goes back to the, to Bethany, presumably Bethany. And on day three, he comes back and he finds that as they're passing by, Peter notices or the disciples notice that the fig tree was dried up and withered after that Jesus is cursing it.

And then Peter comes to Jesus and he says, master, the fig tree is withered. And it says, Jesus answered. In other words, Peter was asking a question. What's going on here? And Jesus expands and he says, have faith in God. And then goes in to talk about faith and moving mountains and all of that. And what does mountains have to do with that? And that's the kind of questions that come up.

So as I say, when you, when you come to a chapter like this, you look at this chapter and you say, you know, I can follow the seek. I can see what you're doing, Lord, but why are you doing it? And going back to the Michelangelo quote, I just have to say, as Michelangelo said, I carved until I set the angel free. We kind of carve, we want to get into, we want to study this, say, Lord, I know that there's riches in here.

There's gold in our hills. I want to know the glory that is in this chapter. I want to understand it. Because the scripture says, Psalm 119 says, I rejoice in thy word as one that findeth great spoil. I know there's something in here that's going to transform me. And it'll transform others who hear about it as well. The, when the, when Jesus walks in through Jerusalem, it says that the people were astonished at what he said.

They don't say what he said, but they were astonished at it. That word is an interesting Greek word, ekplesso, which really means to literally means to be blown away. It was that, they were that astonished. And that's the kind of revelation, that's the kind of treasure we can have when we're studying the word and saying, Lord, I need to understand this.

And so you take, you carve until you find out. You take the tools. You meditate. You pray. You wait on God. You say, what does this mean? You go to, you get the hammer and the chisel and you get into the word, the lexicons and whatever it might be until you understand it. Michelangelo also said, I'm never happy unless I have a hammer and chisel in my hand.

And that's the spirit that the Lord wants us to have with his word to understand it. So the first day, as I say, let's just go through a couple of things first. The cult, the cult, we went to where this was five years ago as well. Now, the Jews had a strange law and you find it twice in the book of Exodus. It says if you have a donkey and it gives birth to a foal or a cult, you have a choice.

You can either keep the donkey but sacrifice a lamb for its redemption or its ransom or you can take the cult that was just born and break its neck. That's your choice. And the reason for that was that this was a holy land and not only the people but all the domesticated animals needed to be holy. And so the donkey is an unclean animal. So we had to do something about that.

So Moses promulgated or the Lord promulgated a law about the redemption of the donkey. What is that picture? Well, man is likened to the stubbornness of a donkey, isn't he? In fact, Job basically alludes to that. And so we were unclean. We were an unclean animal. We were unclean. And so we needed a redemption. And what provided the redemption for us?

It was the sacrifice of the lamb. And therefore, we can serve the Lord. We can dwell in his land. We can dwell with him and with his people clean, washed in the blood of the lamb. So that colt was an unclean animal made clean. And that's what Jesus rode. In Zechariah 9.9, there's a prophecy that says, Behold, your king cometh unto you lowly, riding on the back of a colt.

And so that lowliness was what Jesus was manifesting there when he rode into Jerusalem. So the disciples got the lamb, excuse me, got the colt. They put their garments on the colt and Jesus rode it. Their garments being on the colt is a symbol that the colt, the lowly colt, or the symbol of lowliness, with the garments on top of it represents that God's people are going to be God's instrument for bringing the message of the gospel to the world.

And there were people that were acclaiming Jesus there, and they're waving their palm trees, palm branches, and all of that. But Jesus, as we said last five years ago, was not rejoicing. Sometimes the movies show Jesus waving and smiling and so forth as he's riding this colt. But actually, he was probably very sad because he was coming in as the lamb of God to take the sins of the world upon himself on Calvary, and they were expecting him to be the king like a King David and kick the Romans out of the land and free the land in the political sense.

So day one, he comes, he rides into the town, he looks around, he ends. The next day he comes and he sees the fig tree from afar, and he curses the fig tree. Why? Because it did not have the fruit that he was seeking. Now, people say, well, it says it also that it was not the season for figs. Why would he curse it? Well, it was partly because God had determined that because of the sins of the nation that it would not bear fruit, and he was acknowledging that.

Actually, the word curse is not a curse like we think of it. I swear by God, and so on and so on. It's a word in the Greek that simply says he spoke down at it and said this is what, in fact, the word is kind of used for a wish sometimes. May no one eat fruit of you forever. And people wonder if that, is that unfair to this self-respecting fig tree, minding its own business, sitting there, and so on.

He comes. People say, well, some people say, I try to explain it, say, well, figs from the previous fruit-bearing season were usually still on the fig tree, even though it was not that season for the figs. Other people say that usually when the fig tree grows, it's the fruit that appears first, then the leaves. He saw the leaves, so he could have expected the fruit.

But again, at the end of the verse, it says it was not the season for figs. What we're seeing there, again, is understanding the fig tree and what God's plan is for Israel. Because this is important, that you understand that the Jews all understood this when Jesus cursed the fig tree. And it said all the disciples heard him say it, that that fig tree was a picture of Israel.

And all the Jews knew that. It was in their writings. Hosea says, I saw your fathers as the first rife of the fig. And other scriptures all presenting that. And so when Peter and the rest of the disciples heard Jesus curse the fig tree, they're wondering, what are you saying about us, about our beloved nation here? He goes into the temple, and then he cleanses the temple.

Now, we have to understand here also the sequence. Back in John chapter 2, at the beginning of Jesus' ministry, he went into the temple and he cleansed the temple, just as we sort of see here, at the end of his ministry, at the end of his three and a half years of ministry. The difference was very significant here, though. At the beginning of Jesus' ministry, John the Baptist had been calling the nation to repentance.

Multitudes had been coming down to him at the Jordan. And Jesus began his ministry with the saying, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. It's at hand. And then he went into the temple to prepare the temple for receiving him as, so the religious leaders could receive him as their Messiah. And so he cleanses the temple at that time. He gets upset with what's going on in the temple.

And he says, this is supposed to be a place of prayer for all nations, and you've made it into a marketplace. That's the term that he uses in John chapter 2. You've made it into a marketplace. Now, there's nothing wrong with a marketplace. We need marketplaces. Just don't hold the marketplace. Just don't put a marketplace in the temple. It's important.

Now, in this cleansing, and the other that you describe in Matthew and Luke and all, he doesn't call the temple a marketplace. He casts out the money changers. He says it's a place of prayer for all nations. And he says, you've turned it into a what? Den of what? Thieves. Okay, you've turned it into a den of thieves. Now, a marketplace, you can take out of the holy place and move it somewhere and let it continue to operate.

But if you come upon a den of thieves, the only thing you want to do is get rid of the whole thing that it's in. That is an unclean, it's a corrupt situation. So he's saying at this time, look, I gave you a chance. Three and a half years. I cleansed the temple. You could have heard. You could have received. And now the time has come that the door is shut.

Back in the last verse of Matthew 23, what does Jesus say? Your house is, after, you should all read Matthew 23. He talks about the problems, the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. He says in all of that, the last verse says, now your house is left to you desolate. You shall not see me again until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

So we're basically shutting the door with this cleansing of the temple. It was done as far as God's working with the Jews at this time. Day three comes around again and Peter asks the question. He's come back. He went back to Bethany after cleansing the temple, after cursing the fig tree. Peter, he comes back. The disciples are walking and they see the fig tree has withered.

And Peter asks Jesus, says, Jesus, the fig tree has withered. That's all he says. But that's a question. Jesus, where are the fig tree? You've doomed the fig tree. At least that's what it seems to be. Can you, your master, he says, master, teacher, can you teach us about this? What's going on? And Jesus replies, have faith in God. And it says he answered Peter with, have faith in God.

And that's kind of cryptic. Literally, in the Greek, what he says is, have the faith of God. And he's trying to, and he's saying something to answer Peter's concerns and his worry and his anxiety. And he says, have the faith of God. And you say, well, what does that mean? How does that answer it? He's basically saying, Peter, I know you're very worried about this.

Disciples also, all of them. I know you're concerned. But I want you to have the faith of God. And here's the ellipsis. The ellipsis is words not spoken or written, but understood from the context. He says, have the faith of God for the fig tree. I want you to understand something. That the fig tree is withered and died, but it's coming back. Have the faith of God.

God is faithful for his covenant promises to Abraham that he's going to restore the fig tree in its time. And so you don't need to worry. Because everything is going to work out for the good here. God has everything under control. Then he launches into that, again, mysterious next verse. And says, and if you have, verily I say unto you, if you should say unto this mountain, Be thou uprooted and cast into the sea, it shall obey you.

And you doubt not, it shall obey you. And suddenly, you know, you're scratching your head. This is the kind of thing you get. Where did this mountain come from? First of all, we're talking about the fig tree. And now suddenly there's this mountain that he's talking about. First of all, the Jews did know that the fig tree was Israel. That was very clear in their scriptures.

They also knew something else. That the this mountain that's referred to in that verse is the temple. Because several times in the Bible, you'll find this expression. The mountain of the Lord's house. So probably Mount Peter, it could be Jesus, was looking at the temple or pointing to it. And he says, this is the source. This is the den of thieves that has corrupted this nation so that it has no fruit.

It doesn't have the fruit of the, as we in the New Testament area say, the fruit of the spirit. It has no fruit. And so this is that which is causing the loss of the nation, the national identity. So he says, verily I say unto you, if you should say to this mountain, that temple, that den of thieves that has caused all of this corrupt, that is so corrupt that it has corrupted the nation as well.

If you shall say unto this mountain, be thou uprooted and cast into the sea. It shall obey you as long as you doubt not. And furthermore, he says, whatsoever you desire, pray believing, believing it's already yours and it shall be given to you. And when you stand praying, forgive. And if you have ought against any, forgive. And for if you forgive not, your heavenly father will not forgive you.

All of this is a part of God's description of his, Jesus' description of the plan of God for the church. In Mark 9, two chapters earlier, he had said, if anyone stumbles, one of these little ones, let him, let a millstone be put around his neck and what? Let him be drowned in the sea. And so he's saying basically, let this mountain, this temple complex, these religious leaders that have, that's made this temple into a den of thieves, let them be drowned in the midst of the sea.

Let them be, let this mountain be lifted up and cast into the sea. And then he says, to the, to the disciples, as I say, whatsoever you desire, I say, I'm sorry, therefore, I say unto you, what things, soever you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them. he's now talking strictly in the plural sense ye, you my disciples you're going to be the replacement you're going to bring to pass the replacement for this temple you're going to be the living temple a temple of living stones filled with the spirit giving glory to God with me in your midst and so he says let that let this mountain be cast away you're going to be the replacement mountain you're going to be the replacement temple you're going to be the house of the Lord where I'm going to be in your presence whatever you ask for whatever ye ask for plural whatever you seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness whatever ye ask for believe that you have it and it shall be yours and then he says let this but remember if you have ought against any forgive and your heavenly father will forgive you if you don't your heavenly father will not forgive you because he wants that temple that house to be a house of what?

prayer for all peoples that you if we forgive we'll be forgiven and the house of prayer is something where the Gentiles come in and they ask for forgiveness of their sins and to be cleansed and to become new creatures in Christ Jesus and then they're forgiven and the house grows in grace and knowledge of the grace of our Lord so Peter is excuse me Jesus is walking is talking to his disciples and making them understand back in he was giving them a foretaste of what he wanted to see happen a mystery which Paul sees revealed in the book of Romans Paul says this I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery brothers a partial hardening has come upon Israel the withered fig tree until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in and in this way all Israel will be saved in other words the fig tree will come back now you can come back to me and say well yes Elliot but he said may no one eat of you forever but the words forever there is a phrase in the Greek which means for a long time an age and so there was a period of time and so we are in that age now where the restoration of the fig tree is taking place hallelujah Matthew 24 says learn a parable of the fig tree this is Jesus talking about the last days when the branch is yet tender and putteth forth leaves you know that summer is nigh so likewise when you see all these things know that it is near even at the doors so the fig tree is starting to blossom again and the Lord is coming that's why I'm kind of your resident Pentecostal here I guess but but you know I'm one of those Jesus is coming pray look around get ready be prepared because Jesus is coming why because we've seen the fig tree grow and so that's the picture there but Jesus had to put the fig tree in abeyance for a while until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in and so the fact that the fig tree is starting to sprout and the Gentiles are being the gospel is being preached over the whole world means that he's standing at the door ready for us as Peter says in one of his epistles let us hasten the coming of the Lord by being faithful in prayer amen thank you thanks brother Elliot I always say he's like a rabbi another beautiful thing about our church is we're multi-generational how long have you been in this church Elliot 11 years been faithfully teaching the Bible honored to hear you bring the word now as a family of faith whoever if you have these in front of you if you want to get these out family of faith if you have put your personal faith in the Lord Jesus for salvation and believe that he died for your sins and rose and that by grace through faith you can have salvation in his name and be reconciled to the Father this is communion that churches throughout all times a lasting ordinance Jesus said do this in remembrance of me we're going to have a scripture in the back just administrative stuff we will take this together first the symbol of his broken body and the bread and then the wine and the scripture says in Luke 22 17 Jesus had gathered his apostles it was before he was going to enter in his suffering and his death and then later resurrection and he has a meal with his family with his chosen and he says after taking the cup he gave thanks and said take this and divide it among you for I tell you I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes and then he took the bread and he gave thanks and broke it and gave it to them and he said this is my body given for you do this in remembrance of me family let us take this bread that is given for you this symbol of Jesus suffering and broken body as a substitute because he has taken the curse upon himself so you will not be cursed and you can enter into eternal life right now so let's feast on this symbol of his broken body together and then in the same way after supper he took the cup saying this is the cup of the new covenant in my blood which is poured out for you if you believe that Jesus poured out his blood for you and you put your faith in him let us drink together Jesus we sing your praises every Sunday we can't stop thinking about you we can't stop talking about you we can't stop being in awe of you thank you for this Palm Sunday and Good Friday and Resurrection Day thank you for your church thank you for giving these lasting ordinances these visible signs and seals that nourish us and help us remember to keep the main thing the main thing you that you are our salvation and we live out of that salvation and bear good works that glorify your name encourage your people today help this week help us take radical little acts of faith praying for people inviting them to the movie of the passion and help us enjoy this day that you've made in Jesus name amen alright church let's rise up Pastor Adam likes to do this tradition where whoever we're giving you a blessing there's no power in itself but there's deep Old Testament and New Testament symbols of this of the blessing and if you want to put your hands out as if you're receiving a blessing the priest used to do this and may the protection of the Father watch over you