A lHI(Q)1UslE (Q) IF IPlltA,1flE lltMark 11:12-24

There have always been men and women figuring out ways to separate other men and women fromtheir assets-some legally and some illegally. But the most despicable of all are those who do it in thename of God

One of the most popular began his ministry in 1959 with only $70 and has profited handsomely. Hiscurrent personal wealth, though unknown for sure, is estimated at $500 million to $2 billion. His empireis comprised of both non-profit and for-profit operations. He created "The Family Channel" in 1977 witha personal investment of $183,000 and sold it to Fox in 1997, for about $1.5 billion. He owns or has ownedDorothy Hamil's Ice Capades, Mary Tyler Moore Entertainment, a hotel, International Jet Charter, andinterests in diamond and gold extraction businesses in Africa.

There is something fundamentally flawed when a "preacher" can take $70 and funds from donors forspreading the gospel, gain personal control of much of it and multiply it in twenty or so years to becomeone of the wealthiest men in America.

And there are many just like him with private jets, massive ministries, and luxurious homes whohave turned God's house, a house of prayer, into a den of robbers.

This past week Evan Davis loaned me an interesting book by Dave Shiflett, Exodus, Why AmericansAre Fleeing Liberal Churches for Conservative Christianity. His fundamental conclusion is that people areleaving liberal churches in droves because those churches have abandoned the gospel, biblical truthsabout the deity, incarnation, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, as well as biblical standards of mo-rality. Consequently, they have nothing to offer that cannot be found in most civic clubs. He quotes theEnglish theologian P. T. Forsythe who said, "If within us we have nothing above us we soon succumb towhat is around us." The standard sermon in liberal churches runs something like this: "God is love.God's love is inclusive. God acts in justice to see that everyone is included. We therefore ought to be co-actors and co-creators with God to make the world over in the way he wishes." He continiues:

. . . churches that abandon traditional faith and take up worldlycauses ... are likely to embrace severe decline, if not extinction. Theremay not be much left ... now: by one accounting, there are nearly twiceas many lesbians in the United States as Episcopalians (1.5 percent of thepopulation as opposed to 0.78 percent) .

. . . (theological) innovators have reduced God to about one-third ofHis former self. This God .... has ideals for the future, and he tries tolure us to actualize those ideals, but he does not control each individualor occasion. ..

This 30 percent God is a Wee Deity-WD-30, we might call Him-and attractive in the sense that no one need fear such a God, or heed Himeither. .. What percentage of power, then, does God have in thisscheme? Does he have 20 percent and the advancing world has the other80 percent? Is it 30/70? And if that's the case, why is he worth worship-ping?"

In Jesus' day, as we see in today's text, there were religious leaders who turned the temple that wasmeant to be a house of prayer into a den of robbers where the poor were exploited for pure profit That'swhat I want to talk. about, but first

LET'S PRAY ABOUT IT!Merciful and gracious God in heaven, we thank You for Your sure word that has stood and will stand

the test of time. We ask You to guide us as we consider this difficult passage. Keep us faithful to the textthat we may clearly hear from You. Deliver us from even the temptation to make You like ourselves. Iask all these things in Jesus' name, for his sake, and by his merit alone. Amen.

Turn in your pew Bibles to the passage we read earlier, Mark 11:12-24 (Page 994). As I said earlier,this passage about the Lord's cursing the fig tree is a very difficult and troublesome passage. WilliamBarclay, who has difficulty with almost everything supernatural, contends that it is, without exception,the most difficult story in the gospel narrative and to take it as literal, factual history presents difficulties,which are well-nigh impossible to overcome. He writes, and several commentators to a greater or lesserextent reflect his views, that

(1) The story does not ring true. ... the whole incident does notseem worthy of Jesus. There seems a certain petulance to it. It is just thekind of story that is told of other wonder-workers but which is never

1Dave Shiflett, Exodus- Why Americans Are Fleeing Liberal Churches for Conservative Christianity (NewYork: The Penguin Group, 2005), P'P: 41-42, 57-58.

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told of Jesus. Still further, we have this basic difficulty. Jesus ... wouldnot tum the stones into bread in the desert to satisfy His own hunger. Hewould not use His own miraculous powers to escape from His enemies.He never used His power for His own sake; ..

(2) Still worse, the whole action was unreasonable. This was thePassover Season, that is the middle of April. The fig-tree in a shelteredspot may bear fig leaves as early as March, but never did a fig-tree bearfigs until late Mayor early June. Mark says it was not the season for figs.Why blast the tree for failing to do that which it was not possible for it todo? It is both unreasonable and unjust.'

Others contend that fig-trees in early April produce quite a crop of small knobs, not real figs but akind of early forerunner that grow to the size of green almonds that are eaten by peasants and otherswhen they are hungry.' Some commentators note that they are a delicacy and others that they are not atall tasty.

Look at the text where we see that Mark begins his account of the fig-tree incident (verses 12-14),sandwiches Jesus' activity in the temple (verses 15-19), and then returns to his account of the fig tree(verses 20-24). Remember, Jesus had made His entry into Jerusalem amid the worshipping crowds,where the whole city-according to Matthew-had been moved or shaken (the Greek word from whichwe get our English word "seismic") by His presence. And as we saw last week, He looked around thetemple area as if surveying a scene for battle, did nothing, and went to Bethany to spend the night

Let's consider the text the way Matthew has it-first Jesus on the temple mount and then the cursingof the fig-tree-verses 15-17. Put your finger at Matthew 21:10-17 (Page 968).

15 So they came to Jerusalem. Then Jesus went into the temple and be-gan to drive out those who bought and sold in the temple, and over-turned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who solddoves. 16And He would not allow anyone to carry wares through thetemple. 17 Then He taught, saying to them, "Is it not written, "My houseshall be called a house of prayer for all nations'? But you have made it a'den of thieves.' "

Here's the picture. It's Monday and only days before the Lord's crucifixion. He has come to Jerusa-lem to die for the sins of His people. He had, just the day before, ridden into the city on a donkey as apeaceful and gentle king and accepted the praise and adoration of the people as Messiah. Now He re-turns to the city and the temple area to begin the Messiah's work as prophesied in Malachi 3:1-4 (Page942).

I "Behold, I send My messenget, and he will prepare the way before Me.And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, eventhe Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. Behold, He is com-ing," says the LORD of hosts. 2. "But who can endure the day of Hiscoming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner'sfire and like launderers' soap. ~ He will sit as a refiner and a purifier ofsilver; He will purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver,that they may offer to the LORD an offering in righteousness. ~ Thenthe offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasant to the LORD, as inthe days of old, as in former years.

When Jesus strode through the temple grounds overturning the tables of the moneychangers andthose who sold sacrificial animals, He was presenting an acted-out parable. Matthew, who wrote primar-ily for a Jewish audience and was attuned to nuances that spoke more clearly to Jews, begins his accountof the temple incident by noting that the multitudes described Him as Jesus, the prophet from Nazarethof Galilee, not "a" prophet, but "the" prophet in fulfillment of Moses declaration in Deuteronomy 18:15that the Lord God would raise up a prophet like himself.

By looking at both Mark and Matthew we get a clear picture of the Lord Jesus, the Pharisees andpriests, and what angered each of them. For the Lord Jesus, the supreme blasphemy was that this place-the outer court of the Gentiles-which was to have been a place of prayer for non-Jewish people of every

2 William Barclay, The Gospel of Mark - The Daily Study Bible Series (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press,1956), p.p. 28O-28l.3Walter C. Kaiser, Jr., Peter H. Davids, F. F. Bruce, and Manfred T. Brauch, Hard Sayings oj the Bible,(Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996), P'P: 441-442.

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nation had become a place of business and dishonest business at that. 4 You see, the temple area was ahuge religious complex. The temple itself consisted of the Holy Place, where the priests ministered andthe Most Holy Place where only the high priest entered once a year. James Montgomery Boice writes that

... this comparatively small building was surrounded by severalconcentric courts, the outermost of which was the very large Court of theGentiles. This is where the money changing and selling of sacrificialanimals took place because ... it was not thought of as particularly sa-cred.

Two kinds of business were transacted. The first was the exchangeof various national currencies for the temple coins used to pay the tem-ple tax ...

The other kind of trade was the sale of sacrificial animals. W orship-ers did not need to buy them at the temple; they could bring their sacri-fices with them. But this was inconvenient for pilgrims coming from dis-tant areas ... Moreover, the law stipulated that the animals had to bewithout blemish. Whether they were or not was determined by thepriests, and there was always a chance that the priests would reject an of-fering even after it had been brought a long way.

The money changers charge ... was about half a day's wage for a la-boring man ... and a pair of doves (the poor man's sacrifice) could costfifty times more inside the temple area than outside. .. Clearly, by thetime of the Passover at which Jesus presented Himself as Israel's Kingand Messiah, the temple had become a bazaar."

And it is true that the high priestly families did gain wealth from their control of the merchants andtheir stalls and were guilty of corruption. Part of the problem was an unholy mixture of religion andmoney.

David Garland, on the other hand, suggests that Jesus had more in mind than dealing with the cor-rupt merchants and religious leaders who. profited from scalping the poor. He believes that the events inthe temple area that day were intended not to attack and purify abuses but to signal an end of the templeitself and its function. He writes:

Ifmoney cannot be exchanged into the holy currency, then monetarysupport for the temple sacrifices and the priesthood must end. If sacrifi-cial animals cannot be purchased, then sacrifice must end. .. Jesus doesnot seek to purify current temple worship but symbolically attacks thevery function of the temple and heralds its destruction."

He also contends that the reference to the "den of robbers" has nothing to with the trade in the tem-ple but denounces the false security the temple sacrifices breed.

In other words, the robbers are not swindlers but bandits, and theydo not do their robbing in their den. The den is the place where robbersretreat after having committed their crimes. It is their hideout, a place ofsecurity and refuge. Calling the temple a robbers' den is therefore not acry of outrage against any dishonest business practices in the temple. Je-sus indirectly attacks them for allowing the temple to degenerate into asafe hiding place where people think that they find forgiveness and fel-lowship with God no matter how they act on the outside. .. The leadersof the people think that they can rob widows' houses (Mark 12:40) andthen perform the prescribed sacrifices according to the prescribed pat-terns at the prescribed times in the prescribed purity in the prescribedsacred space and then be safe and secure from all alarms ...

The sanctuary, supposedly sanctified by God, has become a sanctu-ary for bandits who think that they are protected from God's judgmentThe phrase "I have been watching" (Jeremiah 7:11) matches the descrip-tion of Jesus' visit to the temple on the previous day, when he "looked

4 R. Alan Cole, Mark=Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerd-mans Publishing Co., 1961 [1999]), p. 252.5 James Montgomery Boice, The Gospelof Matthew: Volume 2, The Triumph of the King 18-28 (Grand Rapids:Baker Publishing Co., 2001), p. p. 442-443.6 David E. Garland, The NW Application Commentary-Mark (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), p.p. 436-437.

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around at everything" (Mark 11:11) turning that visit into an inspection ... He has seen what the people are doing and pronounces God's judg-ment,"

The Pharisees and priests on the other hand were offended, according to Matthew (21:14-16 Page968), by the words of the children calling out in the temple.

14 Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healedthem. 15But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful thingsthat He did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, "Ho-sanna to the Son of David!" they were indignant 16 and said to Him,"Do You hear what these are saying?" And Jesus said to them, "Yes.Have you never read, 'Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants Youhave perfected praise'?"

They understood the implication of the fact that while He drove out the money changers and mer-chants, He welcomed the blind and lame the authorities kept from the temple grounds and healed them.They understood the cries of the children as well as Jesus' quotation from Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11and determined to eliminate Him as we see in Mark 11:18-19.

18 And the scribes and chief priests heard it and sought how they mightdestroy Him; far they feared Him, because all the people were astonishedat His teaching. 19 When evening had come, He went out of the city.

Look at the text again, verses 12-14 and 20-21 and the fig tree episode.12. Now the next day, when they had come out from Bethany, He washungry. 13And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to seeif perhaps He would find something on it. When He came to it, Hefound nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. 14 In re-sponse Jesus said to it, "Let no one eat fruit from you ever again." AndHis disciples heard it. .. ~ Now in the morning, as they passed by, theysaw the fig tree dried up from the roots. 21 And Peter, remembering, saidto Him, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree which You cursed has withered away."

Alan Cole reminds us that unless we realize that this whole event was an acted parable we will bepuzzled by all sorts of irrelevant questions, such as the ones raised by Barclay and others. Again, Gar-land is very helpful.

This action is not about a particular unfruitful fig tree; it has to dowith the temple. The :word "season" (kairos) is not the botanical termfrom the growing season but the religious term found in 1:14-15 denot-ing the time of the kingdom of God ...

Time can run out for fruitless trees and prayerless temples ... Just asthe fig tree was not pruned and manured so that it might bear fruit butcursed so that it died, so the temple was not cleansed so that it couldcontinue in more fitting service to God, rather, it would soon come to anend ... The locus of salvation now shifts from the temple to Jesus and hisdeath and resurrection. .. Thus when Jesus dies, the curtain of the tem-ple is tom from top to bottom .

. . . For a fig tree in full leaf to shrivel so completely within a day is amiracle, and it conveys that the temple's condemnation is not a tempo-rary measure."

Listen! Frederick Bruner had it right when he wrote:The Lord Jesus comes, not only as a merciful and modest king, he is

also a mighty and awful judge. He is not only love; he is also justice."And for this we should say, "Hallelujah! Praise His holy name!Now look at the text again and the Lord Jesus' response in verses 22-26.

22 So Jesus answered and said to them, "Have faith in God. 23 For as-suredly/ I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed andbe cast into the sea/ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes thatthose things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. 24

7 David E. Garland, The NIV Application Commentary-Mark (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), p.p. 438-439.8David E. Garland, The NIV Application Commentary-Mark (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), p. 440.9 Frederick L. Bruner, Matthew- Volume 2, The Churchbook,Matthew 13-28 (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1987),p.753.

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Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believethat you receive them, and you will have them. 25 And whenever youstand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, thatyour Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. 26 But ifyou do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your tres-passes."

This is an interesting and often misused passage and so it's important that we keep it in its context. Itis not, as many claim, a blank check with God. Jesus is not saying How To Write Your Own Ticket With Godas one author wrote in a full page advertisement promoting his ministry. Nor as the late Kenneth Haginwho said the Lord Jesus promised him, "If anybody, anywhere, will take these four steps or put thesefour principles into operation, he will always receive whatever he wants from Me or from God the Fa-ther."

Listen! If the disciples are a model of anything in the gospels, it is of little faith and incredulity. Pe-ter's response in verse 21 to the cursed fig tree, even after witnessing miracle after miracle after miraclefor three years was, "Wow! Look at that! The fig tree you cursed is already withered!"

So what is the Lord Jesus teaching? First, he is rebuking the disciples' unbelief and amazement at thefig tree. Second, He is not speaking of literally moving mountains. That was a common rabbinic sayingrelated to any extremely difficult task. Second, faith is not chosen arbitrarily as a condition of prayer butthe basic condition of all our relationship with God (Hebrews 11:6). Third, some have taken His words,"Have faith in God," or as Matthew puts it, "if you have faith and do not doubt," "you can have anythingyou ask for," as a command to work on having more faith. But it is also possible that Jesus was encourag-ing them to remember that God's promises are grounded in God's faithfulness and not man's ability tobanish every doubt from his heart. As William Lane put it

The man who bows his head before the hidden glory of God in thefullness of faith does so in the certainty that God can deal with everysituation and any difficulty and that with him nothing is impossible."

Finally, as we see in verses 25-26, Jesus gives another "condition" of prayer-the forgiveness of oth-ers. Listen! We have no inherent right to be heard by God! It is all by His grace and undeserved favor!But, unless we forgive others, it shows we have no consciousness of the grace that we ourselves have re-ceived and need and shows that we are expecting to be heard on our own merits and that cannot be.'!

Let's wrap this up. This is an important passage for us because of our attachment to things. Severalyears ago Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, in a graduation speech at Harvard said that practical Western materi-alism is as bad and perhaps even worse than the philosophical materialism of communism. Communismclaims that matter is all that is. But Western materialism believes that matter is all that matters. We talk ofheaven but we strive for things. For most of us, enough is never enough. We see this, as James Mont-gomery Boice noted, in denominations in which the only "unforgivable sin" is for a congregation to at-tempt to leave the denomination with its property. And many churches are property centered. This issomething we must be particularly cautious about. It is a great blessing to have been on this piece ofproperty for 200 years and to have a beautiful and historic sanctuary. But we must always remember thatit is to be used for God's glory and honor lest it become an object of worship-an idol in our lives.

As we look at the church at large, we see that we live in an age of advertising and promotion withbillboards, newspaper and TV advertising, and clever direct mail pieces that sometimes betrays moretrust in method than message. We have, in many cases, made the word "prayer" little more than code for"financial support."

A trip to many, if not most, Christian bookstores is enough to make one sick. For example, some ofyou will remember the popular WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) bracelets and plaques. Others will re-member the Prayer of [abez craze with every conceivable ''Prayer of [abez" trinket. Do things like thesehonor God or fundamentally take His name in vain.

Then there are the ubiquitous televangelists promising power, fame, and riches to any and all whowill plant a seed of faith, a.k.a. "money" in their ministry.

Finally, there is the liberal church Dave Shiflett wrote about, churches that don't care whether Jesuswas crucified at Calvary or shot at Bunker Hill but are determined to be on the cutting edge of societalaccommodation and evolution.

We must also remember that the faith that moves mountains is nothing more or less than confidencein God's power, wisdom, and goodwill towards believers--grounded in His promises, His Word, and

10William L. Lane, The GospelofMark- The New International Commentary on the New Testament (GrandRapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1974), p. 410.IIR Alan Cole, Mark- Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans PublishingCo., 1961 [1999]), p. 256.

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His character. It is not faith in faith and cannot be. The last words of Jesus in today's passage was thesobering reminder that no prayers can be heard that come from an unforgiving heart because we have noright to look for mercy if we are not ready to extend mercy to our brothers and sisters in Christ, in thechurch, in Zion church. Bishop Ryle put it this way:

Do we know what it is to be of a forgiving spirit? Can we look overthe injuries that we receive from time to time in this evil world? ... Ifnot, where is our Christianity? ... Let us resolve to amend our ways inthis matter. Let us determine by God's grace to forgive, even as we hopeto be forgiven."

Question? Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Savior of sinners? Are youtrusting in Him alone for salvation as he is offered in the gospel? Rev. Martyn Minns, a high profilemember of the (conservative) American Anglican Council was right on the money in his 2004 Easter mes-sage, a message that was once common in mainline churches but now marks him as a dissident. He re-minded his hearers that

God will not be mocked if we declare what God callssin to be not sin.

God will not be mocked even ifwe claim that God'sWord is no longer relevant to the complexitiesof modern life.

God will not be mocked by a church that believesthat it can change foundational truth by amajority vote.

God will not be mocked even if we do seem to begetting away with for a while.

God win have the final word.13SHALL WE PRAY

Great God in heaven, make Your Word alive in our hearts and minds. Grant us faith that movesmountains, a life of fruitfulness, and a forgiving heart to others. I ask this in Jesus' name, for His sake,and by His merit alone. Amen.

[4147)

12 J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels -Matthew & Mark (Cambridge: James Clarke & Co. Ltd.,[1856] 1983), Mark, p. 24013Dave Shiflett, Exodus- Why Americans Are Fleeing Liberal Churches for Conservative Christianity (NewYork: The Penguin Group, 2005), p.p. 41-42.

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