Sixteen Sermons on Mark's Gospel
Mark 11:
July 13, 2003
by Rev. Stephen C. Magee
The people of God have
always longed for His salvation. They
have cried out to God for His deliverance from the hands of their enemies. They have asked Him, “How long, O Lord?” In the last book of the Bible, the book of
Revelation, the white-robed martyrs in heaven bring their request to God:
Revelation 6:9-11 9 When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. 10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" 11 Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed.
There is a connection here, and in other places in the Bible,
between the salvation of God’s people and His judgment against His
enemies. When you think about it, this
is a very natural connection. If God is
to save His people, they must be saved from someone or something that stands
against them. A holy and just God not
only rescues His people, He also judges those who have oppressed them.
In this chapter of Mark’s gospel, we watch the Savior of the
elect of God, the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, as He announces judgment
against the enemies of God. What has
happened is that those who should have been His friends, those who should have
received Him gladly, the people of the Old Testament Administration of the
Covenant of Grace, and particularly their leaders, have become the enemies of
God and His people.
THE PASSAGE:
Hosanna!
The chapter begins with what we have come to call the
“triumphal entry” of Jesus Christ into
They shout out “Hosanna” which means “Save, I pray.” Here is the Son of David who has come to
save, and the crowds do their part according to the script that God has
written. Though this word “Hosanna” by
this time had come to be used as a shout of acclamation apart from its root
meaning, in the way that some worshippers today might use the word
“Hallelujah,” yet the word is perfect for the occasion. The worshippers of God need the salvation
that this great Son of David alone can bring.
To save them, He must not only rescue them from bondage. He must also announce the judgment of God
against His enemies. They come shouting out a portion of Psalm 118, which was used for
the procession up the temple mount at this time every year. They quote verse 25 of this Psalm:
Psalm 118:25 Save now, I pray, O LORD; O LORD, I pray, send now prosperity.
This verse is
one that may sound like your own prayers.
“Rescue me from trouble. Please
give me the reasonable prosperity I seek now.”
But there is more of interest in the verses that precede verse 25, that helps us to understand how this great Son of David will, in fact, save His people. Listen to this, as I read this verse in the
fuller context of the three verses before and the two verses after:
Psalm 118:22-29 22 The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. 23 This was the LORD's doing; It is marvelous in our eyes. 24 This is the day the LORD has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it. 25 Save now, I pray, O LORD; O LORD, I pray, send now prosperity. 26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD! We have blessed you from the house of the LORD. 27 God is the LORD, And He has given us light; Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar.
There is a day described here that is about to happen, that the
people of God should have expected according to the words of Psalm 118. They should have expected a Messiah who would
triumph through suffering, but they did not.
They should have expected One who would be
rejected by the “builders” who would become the Chief Cornerstone in the new
In Mark 11, the
King invades
The Fig Tree, the
When the sun rose the next day, the disciples would be the
first ones to hear of a judgement coming upon
How strange it must have been for those who were with Jesus
that next morning when He used the occasion of His hunger, to announce a curse
on a fruitless fig tree. I say that this
was strange, because it was not the season for figs. No one could have expected fruit at that
time. What was Jesus doing going to a
fig tree to look for fruit, when everyone knew that it would have no
fruit? Obviously He is making a point
here. And it is no accident then that He
now goes back to the temple in order to announce and to act out the judgement of God against
There are a number of Old Testament passages that help to
establish the meaning of these events.
Jesus quotes two of them in Mark 11:17.
The first is Isaiah 56:1-8. In
this passage, hope is given to the foreigner who delights himself in the God of
Israel, that there will be a place for him among the worshipping community of
Isaiah 56:7 Even them I will bring to My holy mountain, And make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on My altar; For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.
The temple was
to be a house of prayer for the nations. This was the vision given through
Isaiah for this center of Old Testament worship – the gathering of the
unexpected faithful from beyond the borders of
In the second
passage quoted by Jesus, Jeremiah 7:1-15, the tone is entirely different. The people who enter into the gates to
worship God are not trusting in Him, they are trusting
in the temple to save them. God calls
them to change their ways:
Jeremiah 7:8- 8 Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit. 9 Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know, 10 and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, 'We are delivered to do all these abominations'? 11 Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of thieves in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it," says the LORD.
In the rest of
the passage, God announces His judgement against the
temple that they have profaned in their faithlessness. Their faith was not in God. It was not the faith that trusts in Him and
then moves forward in fruitful obedience.
Their faith was the faith of men who repeat over and over again words
like “the temple of the Lord”, and then believe that they are safe in their sin
and rebellion. This is not true faith. True faith has the fruit of obedience.
Jesus quotes
these two passages to give an important contrast. The contrast is between the glorious plan of
God and the sin and rebellion of the people who call themselves by His name. God’s plan, according to Isaiah, was that
this holy place would somehow be a house of prayer for the nations, a testimony
of the saving work of Messiah to come.
The people who gathered there should have come as God’s holy people,
seeking the promise of the coming suffering Messiah for the nations, as they
would cry out together, “Save us, we pray.”
But, as in the days of Jeremiah, it had instead become a den of
thieves. The misuse of the temple for
religious commerce and convenience was a fitting display of a much deeper
problem. The people thought that they
could trust in the temple, even though they did not trust God.
Most especially
they did not rightly see the
This is the
essence of Old Testament
The final
passage for us to consider is not one that Jesus quotes. But it is one that He is clearly acting out
as He comes to the temple, in the full authority of His Father. Listen to Malachi 3:1-5:
Malachi 3:1-5 1 "Behold, I send My messenger, And he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, Will suddenly come to His temple, Even the Messenger of the covenant, In whom you delight. Behold, He is coming," Says the LORD of hosts. 2 "But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner's fire And like launderer's soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; 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. 4 Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem Will be pleasant to the LORD, As in the days of old, As in former years. 5 And I will come near you for judgment; I will be a swift witness Against sorcerers, Against adulterers, Against perjurers, Against those who exploit wage earners and widows and orphans, And against those who turn away an alien -- Because they do not fear Me," Says the LORD of hosts.
Somehow this great divine Messenger of the covenant, who
suddenly comes to His own temple, will both judge and save. Who can endure the day of His coming? And yet He will purify an offering of true
worshipers. His people will be a holy
people.
There is
something very new here. Something old
is over and gone. Just as surely as the
fig tree that He cursed the day before is now dried up from the roots, the day
of old Israel – the nation of God’s people – is about to end, and the day of
the church as the Israel of God is about to begin. As the leaders reject the Messenger of the
covenant, the day of
In its place,
something new is coming. The people of
faith built upon the One Cornerstone – the Lord Jesus – they are to be the new
temple of the Lord. They will be the
people of faithful prayer, and through faithful prayer, God will be pleased to
move mountains according to His good will.
They are to have the priorities of the King as His true people. They will ask Him for that which is in accord
with His purposes, they will believe that they have received, and they will
have what they request. And they will be
a people of humble forgiveness. It does
not get much more radical than this. “If
you have anything against anyone, forgive….”
This is the life of the new temple – believing – asking – receiving –
forgiving. This is the life of faith.
By What
Authority?
The King of the New Kingdom has come into
There is trouble here for the enemies of God, who think that
this is their temple and their religion.
They are the very ones who should have awaited a suffering King, and
should have received Him in humility.
But they have rejected Him, and they will kill Him.
These are the ones who, at the end of this eleventh chapter,
challenge Jesus Christ. But He will not
play their games, and He who is their Lord will not back down from what He has
come to do. They question Him concerning
His authority in taking the actions He has taken. He does a masterful reversal and asks them a
question that they can not answer without exposing their own faithlessness,
hypocrisy, and weakness.
Jesus is going to the cross, and He will, through His death and resurrection, perform the decisive actions necessary for the establishment of a new Kingdom. He will save His people, Jew and Gentile, and will put an end to what is now shown to be under a sentence of death. The way of the Old Testament is over. The new Kingdom is at hand.
It would be quite natural for the faithless enemies of God to
think that the cross would be the end of the authority of Jesus. How can a man who dies still rule? But this new Kingdom is more powerful than
sin and death. In this Kingdom, the
cross does not diminish His authority.
It establishes it. Through the
cross, a decisive blow has been dealt against the enemies of God, and salvation
has come to the faithful.
Let me explain. Reject
the cross, and you display that you are not covered by it. You are lost in your sin. You are dead.
You are enslaved in your own sin.
You are lost. Embrace the cross,
and you display that you are covered by the blood of the perfect
sacrifice. Your sins are forgiven. You have life. You are saved.
Let me put it another way.
Reject the Cornerstone, and you are not in the temple. Reject the Cornerstone, and you will be
crushed by the authority of that stone in His coming, when He comes to rescue
His elect, and to judge His enemies. On
that day, no Old Testament edifice can save you. Only Jesus can. “Save me, I pray. Hosanna in the highest.”
He Came to Announce Judgment as Anointed of God.
Faith is the only way to escape the wrath of God – Faith in God
– not in any lesser thing no matter how good a thing it might be. Through the cross of Christ, vile offenders
are truly forgiven. Stand by faith, be
forgiven, and forgive.
APPLICATION:
Consider Carefully the
Judgment of God Against
As we see the Son of David, the Messiah, speaking words of
judgment against
I want to urge
you to make good use of this announcement of Jesus of Nazareth. The judgment of God against the people of the
Old Testament Administration of the Covenant of Grace is clear here. What will you make of that? Paul speaks of this in Romans 11:
Romans 11:19-23 19 You will say then, "Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in." 20 Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. 22 Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off. 23 And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.
The church
today is called to a life of faith.
Faith brings forth fruitful obedience.
We must not use the doctrines of grace to justify presumptuous rebellion
against God and His commandments. If we
are faithless, we are acting as those who are not really connected to this
great King who rode into
Stand as
the
This chapter speaks of those who offer believing prayer
receiving those things that they ask for in this new kingdom. Yet you may feel that you do not receive what
you ask for. I want to offer you some
direction in this matter, first from the words of James and then from the life
of Timothy.
James 4:2-4 2 … you do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. 4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
There was a faithful remnant among the Old Testament
people. They lived by faith then. We live by faith now. This is the only way for anyone to
stand. This means that there can be
nothing for us more important than Christ and His Kingdom. There can be nothing else that is our
trust. There can be no joy more joyful
than the joy of faith. There can be no
sorrow more dismal, than to make a shipwreck of the faith that we profess.
Timothy was the
Apostle Paul’s assistant. As the
faithful remnant of old stood by faith, so did this young man. Many other people who were part of Paul’s
ministerial travelling team were valuable friends and
co-laborers, but the apostle says of Timothy in Philippians, “I have no one else
like-minded….” Why is that? Paul says that “all seek their own, not the
things which are of Christ Jesus.” When
people are like this, they cannot be counted on to care for the things of
God. When people live like Timothy, they
live under the authority of the King of Kings.
The world is not worthy of them.
This is what we are called to as servants of God.
Commit Yourself to Radical
Forgiveness and Know that the Lord Will Judge.
A part of this life of faithful Christian commitment is a life of
true forgiveness. This must not be some
shallow, smooth-talking substitute for true reconciliation. The word “temple” did not save the Old
Testament people no matter how many times they repeated it. In the same way, saying “Forgive me” or “I
forgive you” over and over again does not prove that one is truly committed to
a life of Christian reconciliation.
If you are asking for forgiveness, make sure you are clear
about how you have sinned against your brother.
Do not say “Forgive me, forgive me, forgive me, I did not do anything
wrong.” How have you sinned? Don’t say “Forgive me for making you
upset.” This can just be the equivalent
of saying, “I’m sorry that you are being such a fool, or I’m sorry that you are
being overly sensitive”
If someone asks you for forgiveness, and they are clear about
what they are confessing, and you understand it, you need to forgive them. Even if they do not ask you for forgiveness,
you need to have the posture of one who has already forgiven them. Again, make sure that your forgiveness is
more than meaningless words. What can
you do to make things right? What can be
done to move beyond some uneasy neutral status?
How can you both learn from this experience, so that your relationship
is stronger rather than weaker as a result of the tension that has now been
resolved?
The Lord will be the final judge. Remember this when you offer words of
confession or forgiveness that are not sincere.
Speak the truth in love. Don’t
offer a Christian band-aid on a wound that requires surgical attention. Work toward true reconciliation.
Conclusion: The Glory of Your Name, O Lord!
Finally, our lives are about the glory of the Lord. There is nothing better than the glory of the
Lord. Be completely committed to
it. We do not line the road to the Old
Testament temple in
As the new
worshipers of God, let us with all sincerity live as those who believe the
final words of the Hosanna psalm, Psalm 118:
Psalm 118:28-29 28 You are my God, and I will praise You; You are my God, I will exalt You. 29 Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.