Mark 11:11-33, When Jesus Comes, Dr. John B. Carpenter

Covenant Reformed Baptist Church

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Mark chapter 11, verse 11 to 33, hear the word of the

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Lord. And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the 12.

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On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry and seeing in the distance a fig tree and leaf.

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He went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.

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And he said to it, may no one ever eat fruit from you again. And his disciples heard it.

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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.

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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.

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And he was teaching them and saying to them, is it not written? My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.

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But you have made it a den of robbers. And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and they were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching.

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And when evening came, they went out of the city and they passed by in the morning.

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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 withered.

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And Jesus answered them, 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 he says will come to pass, it will be done for him.

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Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours.

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And whenever you stand praying, forgive if you have anything against anyone so that your father also, who was in heaven, may forgive you your trespasses.

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And they came again to Jerusalem. And as it was, he was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to him and they said to him, by what authority are you doing these things or who gave you this authority to do them?

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Jesus said to them, I will ask you one question, answer me, and I will tell you by what authority

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I do these things. Was the baptism of John from heaven or from man? Answer me.

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And they discussed it with one another, saying, if we say from heaven, he will say, why then did you not believe him?

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But shall we say from man? They were afraid of the people, for they all held that John was really a prophet.

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So they answered Jesus. We do not know. And Jesus said to them, neither will I tell you by what authority

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I do these things. And the Lord had his blessings for the reading of his holy word.

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Well, tomorrow, the United States inaugurates a new president. And in this rare case, the second time only in the history of the country, a president who has been president before.

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He's promising a lot of rapid changes. Many former officials will leave and be replaced by new people.

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Congress is already debating new laws. We hope it's all for the better. The change is coming. My yearly drama of college football, really

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Alabama football for me is over. This was not a good year. This is not a good season, season, whatever this is.

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Was it one of the better seasons that we've had in our series? We had a new coach. He came in and changed things, as was his right.

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And we had high hopes for him in August and September. But then things fell apart. He'll probably get another year or two.

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But if he can't change things for the better. The man will come around and change him.

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When I was in college, we had a change of college presidents, I believe it or my freshman or sophomore year.

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The changes were dramatic. Samford University went from a sleepy, obscure Baptist college hidden away on the other side of Red Mountain from Birmingham to striving to be cosmopolitan and excellent with visiting professors like I saw one from China, an extension,

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University Extension in London, new graduate schools. And I opened a law school eventually after I was gone, a seminary.

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The changes to the athletic department were especially sweeping. My track and cross -country teams went from before the changes, an old football coach who obviously didn't care for the sport.

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Like he was assigned, he had to be the cross -country track coach. And he's like, OK, I have to do it. Went from that. Well, it was just a bit and just a bunch of walk -ons.

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Although whoever wanted in college to run cross -country or track, come on, walk on in the football coach would put you through your drills, whatever went from that kind of thing, basically intramural team almost to specialized coaches who obviously did care for the sport and were excellent.

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I had two great coaches in my junior and senior years there. To this day, when

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I tell people who know track that I ran for Samford, they're impressed because they think, wow,

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Samford, Samford's pretty good. Has a good reputation now. I don't have to tell them, hey, you know, the truth that when

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I started, it really wasn't more than an intramural team with all walk -ons and a football coach.

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We have a saying, a new broom sweeps clean. Someone new is going to come in and change everything for the better.

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Sometimes it works like in my college. Sometimes it doesn't, like maybe at Alabama.

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And sometimes we don't know yet, like tomorrow. What's it like when

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Jesus comes? Jesus will come at the end and will judge the living and the dead.

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But sometimes he comes spiritually now in our lives, in our families, in our church, maybe in countries and nations.

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What's it like when Jesus comes? Johnny Cash had an interesting, brilliantly performed song when the man comes around.

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There's a man going around taking names and he decides who to free and who to blame.

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Everybody won't be treated all the same. There'll be a golden ladder reaching down when the man comes around.

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The hairs on your arm will stand up at the terror in each sip and each sup.

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Will you partake of the last offered cup or disappear into the potter's ground when the man comes around?

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What's it like when Jesus comes? We see that here in six parts.

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First, he examines. Second, he judges. Third, he cleanses.

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Fourth, he empowers. Fifth, he is questioned. And finally, he questions.

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First, Jesus examines. In verse 11, the very first thing Jesus does when he comes to the temple during that last week after being so intent on getting to Jerusalem, so remember, set his face.

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He's going to definitely determined to go to Jerusalem. He's walking ahead of his disciples and so intent that he amazes and even scares his followers.

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The very first thing he does. It says in verse 11, he looked around.

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Now, he had been to the temple before, right? We know many stories of him being in the temple.

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He'd come to the temple regularly since he was a child. But this is different. It's different because of what he's come to do there.

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So he enters the temple compound and he looks around. But he keeps quiet that first day.

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He intended on cleansing the temple. But he didn't do it all of a sudden. He wasn't rash.

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He was looking at how to bring the necessary reformation. John chapter two, verse 17 quotes for zeal for your house.

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We'll consume him about when Jesus cleansed the temple. But it was zeal with knowledge, with consideration.

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So God sees the wickedness of the world, even though he doesn't yet cast it all out.

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He sees the corruption in his church. We have large organizations today that call themselves the church.

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They claim to be following the practices of the early church. In fact, some people say we are the early church.

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But in fact, practice idolatry, literally, I mean, literally, they bow to images in worship, they call them holy icons.

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And they're in the Bible because the idols he God sees that these people are attracting young Christians with their claims of being the original church.

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He looks around at their idolatry and their lies.

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And when he comes, he'll throw them out. Indeed, he's already done that in history.

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He's used the Muslims to throw them out. He's used the communists to throw them out. And if they succeed in growing again, which they probably won't.

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But if they do, he'll throw them out again. Slaves in the

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United States, like Frederick Douglas, called out to God for rescue, for him to see that these people who often called themselves

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Christians, keeping them as slaves, keeping them in bondage because of their race, see this predicament we're in, our bondage.

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And it seemed for a while, even decades, even centuries, that God was blind to it all.

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But he was looking around and he came around.

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Eventually, he loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword.

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Well, here, Jesus comes into the temple. He sees it corrupted.

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He'll act the next day. Second, when

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Jesus comes, he judges. The next day, after looking around, looking around,

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Jesus is on his way back to the temple in the morning. The place where he stayed, apparently, didn't have a free breakfast.

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Didn't have one of those waffles and pour them things in and put it on. He didn't have that.

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So he's hungry. In verse 12. In verse 13, he sees in the distance a fig tree in leaf, full of leaves.

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Well, it's not yet the season for the full, the ripe figs that people usually eat. Fig trees usually produce what they call early figs when they sprout leaves.

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They're not as good as the right figs, but they're better than nothing. So from a distance, he sees a fig tree in leaf.

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And so it would appear that it's going to have some of these early figs, right? It's going to have breakfast for him. So he walks out of his way to this fig tree, hoping for fruit, but he's disappointed.

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And when he got to it, he found nothing but leaves. So he curses it. May no one ever eat fruit from you again.

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In verse 14, this showed in an acted out parable. Like the parable he told in Luke chapter 13, somebody told a parable there about a man who had an unfruitful fig tree, fig tree that didn't produce any figs.

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And he expected figs from it year after year and finally gave up. He said, cut it down.

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Why should he use up the ground? And that's what he's saying about this religion here. It's just using up the ground.

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It's so worthless. The ground it is on would be better off without this religion on it.

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The point is that there is judgment on the unfruitful. When Jesus comes, he expects fruit from what he has planted.

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He's planted Israel with the calls to love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and mind and soul. Love your neighbor as yourself.

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Do justice, love mercy. That's the word steadfast love. Love that.

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Walk humbly with your God. Like from Micah chapter 6 verse 8. That's what he planted.

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That's what he called him to. Now Jesus suddenly comes to his temple fulfilling Malachi chapter 3 verse 1.

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He's hungry for fruit. Instead, all he finds is pretentious leaves. Leaves that promise much from a distance.

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They look like they're going to have some figs there, but they cover a barren tree. He finds the hustle and the bustle of an apparent religion at the temple.

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But it's all a sham. It's hypocritical. And so he will judge it. He will judge the temple and the whole religious establishment so that it is destroyed.

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The fig tree portrays what he did to that unfruitful religion in less than a generation.

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And this is a warning to us. This is what Jesus does when he comes.

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Not like he'd just do it for them and not for us. He won't let our unfruitfulness slide either.

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He will judge us for having his word. And still not loving him with all our heart, mind, and strength.

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Still loving dollars or thrills or whatever more. Still not giving or not forgiving.

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He comes expecting fruit and dispensing judgment. If he doesn't find it.

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Jesus here shows us the dangers of having an apparent outward appearances, good -looking appearances, blooming leaves, but no fruit.

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You can have all the trappings of religion. The forms of godliness, Paul calls it in 2

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Timothy 3, verse 5. You have the Bible reading, the prayer time, church attendance, the right words.

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But if you don't have a transformed life, you're like a fig tree. All leaves, but no figs.

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And when Jesus comes expecting fruit, but not finding any, none of that. Remember that righteousness we saw in the

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Sermon on the Mount. They must exceed the religion of the scribes and Pharisees. If he doesn't find you loving, steadfast love.

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So that your yes is yes. You keep your word. Doing justice, especially to the least of these.

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And walking every day humbly with your God. In prayer, in reading his word, in giving, in living with his people.

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Then when Jesus comes, he will judge. Third, when

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Jesus comes, he cleanses. It's Monday morning now.

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This is his first full day in Jerusalem. Verse 15, he looked around yesterday,

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Sunday. And now he enters the temple complex. Like he owns the place.

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Because he does. And he sets out to cleanse it. The temple is mostly a large plaza.

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And relatively just one village. I believe it's just one, one relatively small building. Housing the holy place and the

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Holy of Holies. But most people, only the priests go in that building. So, you know, if you're a normal person, you don't go in that building.

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Most of it is open air. There'll be an altar there in front of that building. And a space for the

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Israelites to offer their sacrifices. And then around that area is about a four and a half foot tall wall.

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And a sign near the gates of that wall. We can go in and out, but the sign on the, on the, on the gates said, let no man of another nation.

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Enter inside the barrier and the fence around the temple. Whoever is caught will have himself to blame that his death follows.

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Okay. Now, while we understand they did have a need to warn people.

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That only believers should enter that worship area. That the court of Israel, it was called.

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Still, the warning reeks of the contempt they had for other people.

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Outside that wall area, still the plaza goes even further. Was the large court of the

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Gentiles. And it's a spacious open area. The chief priest had just a few years before this decided to allow merchants.

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To set up their tables, their booths. To cater to what

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Israelites needed for their sacrifices. Understand the court of the Gentiles was now turned over to be used for.

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Merchants, whatever, concessionaire, renters for Israelites needs. Not for Gentiles, but for the

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Israelites. In other words, they made the decision to fill the court of the Gentiles with merchants. Selling Israelites, mostly the right animals that they needed for their sacrifice.

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Right? You understand that you needed a particular kind of animals. They had to be, they had to pass an inspection to be offered a sacrifice.

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So the merchants likely had an agreement with the priest. Here's our animals that we'll sell.

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In your court of the Gentiles out there in the temple on the plaza. And they would meet the priest inspection.

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And the priests were supposed to inspect the animals so that they were fit for sacrifice. And they would likely, the priest would accept the animals bought in the temple.

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And they would probably tend to reject any animals brought from outside. After all, the priest get a kickback from the merchants.

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And the merchants charge a higher price. The priests get their cut and the people get fleeced.

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So the temple also would also only accept Jewish money. Not Roman coins with pictures of Caesar or Roman gods on it.

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And so the money changers could set up their tables right there in the temple area. Very convenient. Charge more, give a commission to the priest and they would get rich.

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And the priest gets a kickback too. And the main problem, but the main problem Jesus condemns is really not the profiteering.

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Okay. Although he implies with a den of robbers, he made it a den of robbers that he is indeed condemning that.

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But the main issue is that this arrangement left nowhere for the

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Gentiles to worship. I mean, their area had been totally turned into a mall for the

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Israelites. Where are the Gentiles supposed to pray? So Jesus drove out, literally the word is threw out.

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Again, like last week, like a bouncer, just picking someone up by the scruff of the neck, throw them out. Those doing business in the court of the

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Gentiles. But the sellers, notice is both the sellers, the merchants and the buyers, the customers were thrown out in verse 15.

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And this proves that the major issue here is not the price gouging. And if you were only angry at profiteering, that is using a choice location, a monopoly, basically to sell far above the market rate.

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If that was his issue, then he had only throw out the merchants and tell the customers that,

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Hey, I freed you from being taken advantage of. I've saved you lots of money, but no, he throws them both out.

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The sellers and the buyers, because the temple is not a place to do business.

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I mean, even if they were selling at a good rate, if they were selling at a discount, they weren't saving Israelites money.

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He would still say, no, you, this is not the place for that. It's a place of worship for prayer.

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And now the church, not the building, but the assembly, the people is

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God's temple. It's where God lives on earth. He now has a holy people, not holy places.

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And it's not for business either. Right? What we're doing right now, together right now, this is not for business.

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It's for worship. It's for prayer. Some churches have a problem with salespeople, maybe multi -level marketers,

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Amway salesmen or whatever, something like that. Other kinds of things. People will go to their churches, make contacts before after service, try to sell their stuff or politicians will come.

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I go to that big church. So they'll be saying people will vote for them. Maybe they'll get to come forward and speak sometime.

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So they'll go for the contacts, the customers or the voters. Now we're small, but there is that issue.

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We're still going on today. People trying to still use the church for business and others try to use the ministry for business, for making money.

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Now it's not great money. Not usually some places it is, but not most of the time it is. It's not usually great money, but if you just repeat short homilies, like some places and just follow a liturgy kind of mindlessly, it's easy.

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That's an easy job for some. If you do it that way. Anyway, some men decide that they'll believe something.

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Maybe like infant baptism or say they believe something that they really don't. Like they believe in hell or they believe in pre -tribulation rapture.

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I've now Scripture teaches hell. It doesn't teach a pre -tribulation rapture. They'll say they believe something because if they say what they really believe, they'll lose their job or they'll lose their pension.

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They'll lose their donors, their hirelings. They're not shepherds.

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They turn the church into a business, consumerism. The idea that life is about money and the things it can buy, it destroys worship.

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And when Jesus comes, he will clean it out of his temple.

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Here, Jesus cleanses the temple with vigor. He's overturning the tables.

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It says he's overturning the seats of these pigeon salesmen. And he probably didn't wait for them to get out of those seats either before he turned them over.

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Now, Mark is the only gospel that says that he wouldn't even allow delivery men to carry their loads through the temple.

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Do you see that? In verse 16. Now think of it. These guys, they were just trying to get their load, whatever they're trying to carry to the other side of the temple.

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They're just taking a shortcut. Now, the temple complex is huge. And so if you had to deliver something in Jerusalem to the other side of the temple, this temple's in the way.

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Well, why not just go through? Go in one gate to the court of the Gentiles, carry your load, your burden.

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Instead of having to walk all the way around, that'd be so much. But Jesus blocked him, told them, go back.

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From now on, the temple was not a shortcut, not a thoroughfare. It's a house of prayer for all nations.

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In verse 17. Mark is the only gospel that includes that last phrase from Isaiah chapter 56, verse 7.

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The others just say my house will be called a house of prayer, showing that Jesus was returning it to his purpose of worship.

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Mark goes even one step further by including for all nations all ethnicities.

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Mark shows that Jesus was cleansing out the temple for the Gentiles. So that the gospel would go out to them.

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You, chief priests and scribes, says you have made it a den of robbers.

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Instead of a place for prayer. Instead of caring about those outside like Gentiles who want to see

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God. You only care about the profit you can make. The church is a body where the pursuit of profit stops.

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Now making money is fine in his place. We all need to support ourselves and our families and hopefully be prosperous enough to give.

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Right? But church, the worship of God is where that stops.

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If that means you have to lose some money because you put worship ahead of money making. Then do it.

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Here, the priests and the scribes only cared for money making. They didn't care at all that outsiders didn't have a place to pray anymore.

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Jesus puts a stop to it. The merchants are probably coming to them now complaining.

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Hey, we paid you big bucks so we can set up our stands outside our stalls.

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And this guy threw us out yesterday. And so loving money, the chief priest decided to destroy him.

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Now you might think, well, they have temple guards at their beck and call. Why don't they just issue the order to their guards to go and pick him up, have

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Jesus arrested? Because they were like evil people usually are. They were cowards.

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They were afraid that the people would turn on them because the people were amazed at his teaching.

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When Jesus comes, he amazes people with what he shows the word of God to mean.

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Then after a busy day of cleaning the temple in verse 19, evening comes and Jesus and his disciples go back out to the east of Jerusalem where they were lodging.

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Fourth, when Jesus comes, he empowers his people.

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The next day, verse 20, it's Tuesday morning. They go back where they were staying toward the temple along the same route.

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They see that same fig tree. Remember that fig tree? Jesus had cursed it already.

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Just 24 hours later, it's withered away, says to its roots.

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Otherwise, it's not just the leaves that turn brown. The whole tree is now withered dead, showing the judgment that it came upon it, came upon it and on what it symbolizes, which is the old temple worship.

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It was all cursed. It's withered away. It's going to be dead to its roots.

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All of it. Peter remembered that Jesus had cursed that just the day before. So this is amazing.

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Verse 21, it says Peter remembered. It's just evidence, more evidence. And Mark is based on Peter's recollection.

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And Peter says, Rabbi, look, he's amazed. The fig tree you cursed has withered.

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And the assumed question is, you know, how did this happen? How did you do that? And this is the last miracle of Jesus in Mark before the resurrection.

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And they want to know how he did it. This is amazing. I mean, you know, if you ever try to kill a tree, they don't wither overnight.

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So this is a miracle. How did this happen? How did you do this? Then comes some of the most misunderstood and abused and twisted scriptures in all the

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Bible for verses 22 to 24. And it's ironically twisted by those who want to turn the church into a den of robbers.

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Now, remember first the context. This is a continuation of the story about the figless fig tree.

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When Jesus comes, he judges unfruitful religion. That's what he's doing.

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Did it before because it cleanses the temple. Both these are pictures of the same thing.

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And then it's withered away the next day. So Peter and the disciples want to know how they can judge and destroy unfruitful religion too.

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And Jesus says in verse 22, have faith in God. Don't have faith in religion.

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Don't put your faith in an organization that says it's the continuation of the early church. That just because it says it has a succession of bishops back to the apostles.

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Well, you should just believe whatever it tells you. No, have faith in God. Just because the priests say that we can turn the court of the

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Gentiles into a mall. Well, we'll allow it. No, have faith in God. Then in verse 23, well, truly

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I say to you, I wish you could count on this. This is a promise. Whoever, anyone of his believers says to this mountain.

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Now, literally he's on the Mount of Olives. Do you understand this mountain? He's probably, we don't know his hand gestures, but he's probably pointing down.

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Whoever says to this mountain that we're standing on right now, where the tree was.

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Are you so impressed by that tree being withered? Why is it withered? Why can you wither a fruitless tree or religion?

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Don't be so impressed with that. You could say to, not only you could just curse a tree and it had died.

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You can say to the whole mountain that it is growing on. Be destroyed. Go into the sea, be taken up and thrown into the sea.

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Now the dead sea is visible from the top of the Mount of Olives. So he's probably saying, whoever says to this mountain, according to where he is, be taken up and thrown into that sea where they can see.

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With their own eyes on the horizon. So we talk about the literal mountain they are on. Pointing to the literal sea on the horizon.

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If you have faith in God and do not doubt in your heart, but believe what he says to dead religion, it will come to pass.

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It will be done for him. Just like Jesus judged and cursed fruitless religion and it was destroyed.

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So if you do the same, you can continue his work. Then in verse 24, whatever you ask in prayer about God's kingdom coming.

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That's what Jesus is talking about. Remember displacing pretentious, but barren religion, making his temple, the church, a place for all kinds of people to pray.

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Whatever you ask for in prayer for that, believe that you have received it and it will be yours.

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You will bring reformation. You will bring in the same result as if Jesus had come.

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Because if you have faith, you do not doubt. He will come. Spiritually, at least.

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So this passage has been used by prosperity preachers. Kenneth Hagan, generation back,

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Kenneth Copeland today and others. To promise that you can turn your religion into profit, that you can have the million dollars, millions of dollars, the mansion, the private jet, the vacation homes by praying, asking

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God for it, believing. And of course, don't forget the one magic ingredient that Jesus did not mention here, but they won't be sure to mention.

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You have to, of course, give them money. No doubt it works for them.

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They make a lot of money. And so turn God's temple into a den of robbers. And they are the robbers.

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When Jesus comes, he will cleanse out those false teachers. Now, let's say, let's even say we grant what the prosperity teachers say.

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This is a promise for any kind of prayer, whatever you want, whoever says any kind of prayer for anything you want, that you can have it.

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If you don't doubt, that's what they teach. Now, what are they praying for?

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They're praying for money or for always for a longer life, for more health, for things that they can hold on to.

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What is Jesus concerned about here? He's concerned about here, a house of prayer for all nations.

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He's concerned about the gospel, the truth, the knowledge of God going out to all kinds of people.

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He's concerned about the kingdom of God. So even if the prosperity preachers are right, that it's just a general promise for anything you want, why are they only using it for health and wealth and not for the kingdom of God?

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Anyway, while he mentions prayer, he adds like from the Sermon on the Mount and the Lord's Prayer. Therefore, for it to be effective, you have to be forgiving.

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If you have anything against anyone, that is you're trying to use God's power, you're trying to use prayer to further your agenda, but you're unlike God, so you're unforgiving of the repentant, then your prayer will not be effective.

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Forgive those who have violated you and repented so that your father who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses when you repent.

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Unforgiveness disables you. What Jesus is doing here is empowering his people to continue his work of cleansing his temple, the church, and withering fruitless religion, or even better, throwing it into the sea.

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So now if we pray that the mountain of old time religion, nominalism, this faith,

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Christianity in name only, false assurance, disciple -less religion in which people claim to be saved, but don't bear good fruit, in which people call themselves

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Christians and then live in whatever sin, just continue to live in sexual immorality or generations back, live with racism and segregation without making a peep or protest, that that kind of religion that looks fruitful, all the religious going on, but there's no fruit, is to be picked up and thrown into the sea.

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It'll be done if we have faith. So if we have faith, we keep praying, we keep preaching, we keep sharing the word, we keep supporting the church and forgiving and giving, and then

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Jesus will bring reform. Here, Jesus empowers us to continue the work that he began here.

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Fifth, when Jesus comes, he is questioned, starting in verse 27.

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As he's back in the temple, it's Tuesday, he's walking, the chief priests, the scribes, the elders, they approach him.

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They have a two -part question, verse 28. What authority are you doing these things or who gave you this authority to do them?

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These things refers mostly to his cleaning out the merchants and the court of the Gentiles the day before.

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In other words, just cut into their income. They're not getting that rental income they wanted from those merchants. In other words, what makes you think you could come here and take over?

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They were supposed to be the authority here. It's what they were thinking. We're the authority here. We're the landlord. Their authority had been challenged and they were angry at that.

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Jesus, the son of God had come to them. And instead of welcoming him, submitting to him, they questioned him.

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And some people think that when Jesus comes, either literally or spiritually, like through an awakening or a reformation, that everyone, especially the professional and religious, will just welcome him.

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They'll welcome whatever he brings. Welcome the changes he brings. But it's not so. In the reformation,

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Jesus came to the fruitless religion of the middle ages with his faith and rituals and organizations.

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And that religion, instead of embracing the reformation and reforming much of the old church, just dug in their heels further, committing themselves.

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It became more committed to things like purgatory, paying for forgiveness. You can buy your way out of sin.

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You just buy the right thing. Believing in tradition over the word of God. Martin Luther came and was questioned.

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Here Jesus comes and is questioned. Finally, when

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Jesus comes, he questions. Starting in verse 29,

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Jesus has a single question to answer their double one. I will ask you one question.

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Notice that they ask him kind of two, two -sided question. No, I'll ask you one question. Just one, answer me.

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Notice how adamant he is about that. Answer me. And I will tell you by what authority

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I do these things. This is the condition on which I'll answer your question, Jesus is saying. Verse 30, was the baptism of John from heaven or from men?

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Don't dodge. He repeats it again. Answer me. Jesus's question puts them in a dilemma as they immediately saw in verse 31.

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If we say from heaven, that is from God, that John instituted baptism by God's authority,

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God's command. Jesus will say, well, why didn't you believe him? Why weren't you baptized? But in verse 32, if we say what we really believe, you know, that's the text here.

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It's an underlying feeling. We say what we really think. He just made it up, something he thought up.

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Well, then the people will turn against us because they really believe he was a prophet. So they don't know what to do.

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So they weaseled out in verse 32. We do not know. Oh, they knew or they thought they knew.

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They just didn't want to say. And Jesus doesn't want to say where his authority comes from either.

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So if they weren't going to tell him, he's not going to tell them. All's fair, right?

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Although he had just hinted where his authority came from. He actually implied the answer already to their question.

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Right? Because his authority comes from the same place John's authority came from.

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Where John got his baptism from is where Jesus got his authority to cleanse the temple from.

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From God. So Jesus says, neither will I tell you since you won't tell me by what authority I do these things.

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Jesus questions and confounds. What happens when Jesus comes to his temple?

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To us. He examines us. He judges us.

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He cleanses us. He empowers us to continue his work.

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And he is questioned by the false brethren. And then he questions.

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Leaving his questioners stymied. What happens when

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Jesus comes to you? He will come at the end.

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He might come from time to time. Before then. Examining you.

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Will he find you fruitful? Or just with the appearance of fruit? Will he have to cleanse you?

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So you stop sacrificing seeking God? For seeking dollars? Will he find you wanting to continue his work of cleansing his temple?

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Or would you be more interested in using his promises to get rich and successful? Would you dare to question him?

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If he turned your religion back to seeking God? Will he have to question you?

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Why did you give so little? Why didn't you keep your commitments? Why did you only care about just us?

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Not justice? Jesus will come. Sooner or later.

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Maybe sooner and later. How is he going to find you?