This morning we returned to Mark's gospel chapter 11. So if you will take your Bibles and turn there, we will be examining verses 12 through 2 under the heading "Jesus Curses Fruitless Religion." Follow along as I read this text, beginning in verse 12 of Mark 11. "The next day when they had left Bethany, he became hungry. Seeing at a distance a fig tree in leaf, He went to see if perhaps He would find anything on it; and when He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. He said to it, 'May no one ever eat fruit from you again!' And His disciples were listening. Then they came to Jerusalem. And He entered the temple and began to drive out those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves; and He would not permit anyone to carry merchandise through the temple. And He began to teach and say to them, 'Is it not written, 'MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER FOR ALL THE NATIONS'? But you have made it a ROBBERS' DEN.' The chief priests and the scribes heard this and began seeking how to destroy Him, for they were afraid of Him, for the whole crowd was astonished at Hs teaching. When evening came, they would go out of the city. As they were passing by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots up. Being reminded, Peter said to 'Him, Rabbi, look, the fig tree which you cursed has withered.'"

Dear friends, there is nothing more offensive to God than hypocrisy. To pretend that somehow you are worshipping Him; and perhaps you do so with your lips or with some of your actions, but in your heart it is a lie. Pretend religion. No fear of God. No love for God, no passionate, personal pursuit of holiness in your life. No hunger for his word. No obedience really to his word. In fact, for many people that claim to be religious, those types of things never enter into their mind. No secret devotion to God, in intimate communion, no prayer life. Only superficial, perfunctory meaningless worship, living as if he really didn't even exist. God described this going on in his ancient people. In Isaiah, chapter 29, beginning in verse 13, he says, "'People who draw near me with their words and honor Me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from Me. And their reverence for Me consists of tradition, learned by rote.’” In other words, hollow ritualism. Doing what is expected, without any real understanding, without any passion, just routine ceremony. And frankly, we see the same thing here in our culture. I call it Sunday in the South. Sunday in the south, you go through the motions of worship, but it really doesn't mean that much to you. Your mind is elsewhere, typically self-focused, where it has been all week. Sadly, many people will come to church every Sunday, with the same attitude as the ancient Israelites, whom God described when they listened to his prophet Ezekiel but had no intention of really hearing and applying what he said we read about this in Ezekiel chapter 33, beginning in verse 31. God says, "'But as for you, son of man, your fellow citizen who talk about you by the walls and in the doorways of the houses, speak to one another, each to his brother saying, 'Come now and hear what the message is which comes forth from the Lord.' They come to you as people come and sit before you as My people and hear your words, but they do not do them. For they do the lustful desires expressed by their mouth, and their heart goes after their gain. Behold, you are to them like a sensual song by one who has a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument; for they hear your words, but they do not practice them.'" And sadly, many churches cater to this kind of religious pretense with sensual music, ear tickling sermons, that entertain but do not edify, that comfort but never convict.

So indeed, dear friends, as we look at this passage here today, we want to examine our hearts in light of all this because we're all prone to various forms of hypocrisy. It's so easy to pretend to love Christ, to act religious, to say the right things, and perhaps to even be Orthodox in your doctrine. But in fact, you're doing nothing more than promoting yourself, or trying to convince yourself that you are more spiritual than you really are. And in a desperate pursuit of affirmation, the self-promoting hypocrite will seek every spotlight to be seen, will grab every microphone to be heard, and will attack everyone who refuses to bow to his or her demands. Now these can be true believers ruled by the Spirit, or by the flesh rather than the spirit. Like the fleshy Corinthians, you will recall, in First Corinthians three. "Men of flesh," the first few verses, it describes them. "Infants in Christ," unable to digest deep doctrinal truths. They're filled with jealousy and strife, they walk like mere men, meaning they live as if they're not even saved. Or there can be those believers in a church that are just factious and divisive. Every church has them. I'm sure we have some here. First Corinthians 11 tells us that that's going to be true in every church. Or they can be unbelievers who are Christian, in name only, like the false prophets that Jesus described in Matthew seven, whose quote, "bad fruit betrayed that they were a bad tree that produced it. There in Matthew seven, beginning of verse 20, we read, "'So then, you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.'"

Well, we see this very clearly in the legalists of ancient Judaism. What was going on for far too many was just a pretense of worship. They would come to the temple and just pursue empty ritualism. They would perform external obedience to somehow merit God's grace, a works righteousness system of religion. In fact, Jesus said in Matthew 15, beginning of verse seven, "'You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you: This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me. But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men?'" Well, this hollow kind of worship again is horribly offensive to God. And this is why Jesus assaults the temple.

We want to examine this text under two real basic categories, number one, here we will see empty religious pretense, illustrated by a barren fig tree. And then secondly, empty religious pretense assaulted by the Messianic priest King, referring to the Lord Jesus. So first of all, let's look at this empty religious pretense that's illustrated by the barren fig tree beginning in verse 12. "On the next day when they had left Bethany. He became hungry. Seeing at a distance of fig tree in leaf, He went to see if perhaps he would find anything on it. And when he came to it; He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. He said to it, 'May no one ever eat fruit from you again!' And his disciples were listening." This is a very intriguing scenario, is it not? Imagine what the disciples were thinking? What on earth is going on here? Well, let's bear in mind that throughout Scripture, we see a fig tree as something that was very important, very important fruit in ancient life. It provided wonderful, delicious fruit. I've been in Israel, I love to eat those figs. They are absolutely delicious. And frequently a fig tree is used as a symbol of the nation Israel. We read about this in Hosea nine as well as Joel one, but also a symbol of peace and prosperity. Figs were one of the fruits described to the children of Israel as part of the blessing of the promised land. In fact, in First Kings four and verse 25, describing the prosperity of Solomon's reign, we read "Judah and Israel lived in safety, every man under his vine and fig tree." Moreover, divine judgment upon his people often included the destruction of their fig trees by marauding invaders, as we would read in Jeremiah five and verse 17. Now, what's interesting with the fig tree, as it begins to sprout leaves, figs would normally produce at least some immature, and even edible fruit. In this case, the tree had some leaves, but no fruit. Mark 11:13, "it was not even the season for figs," it says. So it's especially interesting that this particular tree offered the pretense of being fruitful, and yet it was barren. Unlike most fig trees that would have leaves, there would be some fruit on it, even though it wouldn't be fully developed. I also find it interesting as I think about it, it takes three years from planting a fig tree until it bears fruit. And this reminds me of the three years of Jesus's ministry that should have produced the fruit of repentance in Israel, but it did not. So, seeing this unproductive, barren tree that was planted in good soil and through its foliage should have borne at least some fruit, but it did not, Jesus cursed it. What a powerful parable. This is designed to portray the pretense of spirituality, the pretense of godliness, if you will; hypocrisy that really produces no love of God from the heart. I find it interesting as well in Isaiah five you may remember that great text. There we read how God cursed his vineyard, which was symbolic of the house of Israel. He cursed them because of their hypocrisy, and because of their apostasy, their idolatry. And in that text, we read how that he gave them everything that they needed to bear fruit. He planted them in the right vineyard of the Promised Land. On a fertile Hill, he says he removed all of the stones and planted the choicest vine. And in verse five of Isaiah five we read then he expected it to produce good grapes, but it only produced worthless ones. "Beushim," inedible sour berries. Verse seven he goes on to say , "For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel and the men of Judah His delightful plant. Thus He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; For righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress." Justice and bloodshed as well as righteousness and distress, is really a play on words. In Hebrew, it says that he looked for "mispat" and he got "mizpah." He looked for "sadaqa" and he got "seaqa." And as a result, he pronounced judgment upon them.

By the way, the things that he accused them of, and certainly of which they were guilty, are the very things that we see in our country today. Greedy materialism, drunken, dissipation, defiant debauchery, sexual immorality, redefining morality so that you call good evil and evil good. Haughty humanism, which is the wholesale tolerance of every imaginable form of wickedness, crooked politicians and judges, corrupt spiritual leaders, and on it went. And as a result, soon Babylon came and destroyed them. So too here, in Mark 11, Jesus curses the fig tree. And what he's doing here is symbolically denouncing the nation of Israel for their unbelief. For indeed, he came into His own and His own did not receive him. And to this day, Israel is a nation that is a spiritually barren tree awaiting the second coming of Christ when God will soften their hearts. Bear in mind, according to Romans 11 and verse 25, currently God has hardened their hearts until the time, or the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so when the very last person in the church age is saved, and God then comes and snatches us away in the rapture, God will then judge the both the apostate church and apostate Israel, in Daniel's 70th week, the time of the tribulation. And according to Romans 11:26, we read "And thus all Israel will be saved." But what a powerful lesson to all of us how God hates hollow professions of faith, how he hates pretend Christianity, that fails to manifest Christ like humility, and a love for Christ, a love for His word love for God's people, and a burden for the lost.

By the way, this type of hypocrisy, this type of pretend Christianity is really something that cannot be seen often in our heart, especially those who are steeped in it over a long period of time. It's not like people all of a sudden wake up one day and say, "You know what, I think I'm gonna pretend to be a Christian." That's not how it works, but rather, they get a little bit of religion, and they begin to do a few things and they're around other kinds of superficial hypocrites. They begin to learn what to say and what not to say and what to do and what not to do. And then their religious peers or the church, their denomination, begins to reinforce what they think is true of themselves, that they are godly, that they are to be obedient to the Lord. But in truth, they will be weak in doctrine. They will love shallow preaching, shallow teaching, shallow worship, they will be undiscerning. They will typically attach themselves to religious organizations or denominations or churches that have lots of programs, lots of things going on, that provide the illusion of spirituality. But it's hollow, because there is no heartfelt love in those people. And folks, we must guard against that. We must guard against this. And as a result, their hypocrisy is affirmed by all of the trappings of religion around them. And by the way, it's even worse when people are Orthodox in their doctrine. And yet, they really have no love for Christ, and you do not see it manifest in their life. Well, this was true of apostate Judaism in the first century.

Again, quoting Isaiah 29:13. Jesus excoriated the scribes and the Pharisees for their hypocrisy. Matthew 15 Seven that I read earlier, "'You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you, 'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me. But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.''" And of course, this fruitless display of religion could be manifested in the temple. And this was what was so infuriating and offensive to Jesus. The apostle Paul perfectly described the heart of their character and their conduct. In Romans 10, beginning of verse two, he says, "For I testify about them, that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. For not knowing about God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God." Indeed, as Paul said, in Philippians, three and verse three true worshipers of God are those who, "worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh." Well, the opposite was going on in Jesus day. So cursing the fig tree, Jesus, again, symbolically denounced the nation, Israel for their unbelief. And in verse 20, we read that it withered from the roots up. And we know about 40 years later, Israel was cut down when the Romans came in, and destroyed Jerusalem and the temple.

So we move from the empty religious pretense, illustrated by a barren fruit fig tree, to secondly, this empty religious pretense, assaulted by the Messiah priest king. And what a shocking thing this must have been to the Jewish people, the day before they had hailed him as their Messiah. And now they're watching him come in and do a number on the temple precincts. Verse 15, "Then they came to Jerusalem. And He entered the temple." Now, the term temple here "hieron" in the original language, is a reference to basically the temple campus that would accommodate 1000s of worshippers. It had various courts and inner courts and so forth, the most inner court being the Holy of Holies. And the Holy Place, which was designated by another term "naos" the most outer court was called the Court of the Gentiles. And that's where all of these shenanigans were taking place. Okay? Non-Jews were allowed in the outer court of the temple. And this is where the priests had basically set up their own mini mall, all right? Where they were making money, non-Jews were allowed out there, but the priests could also be out there. In fact, the high priest, Annas was, shall we say, the kingpin of all of this, he was kind of like the mafia Don? Or what would you call him like a mob boss, perhaps that's kind of what he was. In fact, the Court of the Gentiles was called the bazaar Annas. And this marketplace was comprised of a variety of franchises. And what would happen is, merchants would literally purchase a franchise right from the high priest so that they could sell wine and food and salt and oil and sacrificial animals. And the big thing here was exchanging money, because you have to have the right currency to purchase the temple offerings. And what they would do is charge exorbitant fees to change the money. It was basically extortion. And what's interesting is, whatever they sold a percentage of, it went to guess who? The high priests and other priests who had a cut on all of the loot.

And worse yet, according to the Levitical law, you have to have sacrificial animals that pass the inspection of the priest. You beginning to see how the fox is guarding the henhouse here? Well, of course, only those purchased from the priests would make the cut, and historians indicate that they would pay as much as 10 times for their sacrificial animal. You know, as I thought about this, we can't be too shocked. I mean, this stuff still goes on today, doesn't it? It's called faith healers and prosperity teachers, make billions off of desperate, naive, ignorant people collecting seed faith donations. I remember this one guy, I forget which one he was he was selling prayer hankies for 20 bucks, you know, hundreds of gimmicks. In fact, the whole word faith movement is nothing more than a Christian drug cartel. It's basically what it is. It's popularized on certain television networks. You've heard me say before, it's just a religious version of World Wrestling. I mean, everybody knows it's fake, but it's entertaining and a lot of people get sucked up into it, and they give all of their money, hoping to somehow buy a miracle. Somebody sent me a video clip the other day, it was a clip of one of the prosperity, charlatans. His name was Jesse Duplantis and he was interacting with some others, including Kenneth Copeland, on this large platform in front of a bunch of people. And he was bragging about being not a millionaire, he said, but a multi, multi, millionaire. In fact, he said the reason Jesus, this is a quote, I wrote it down. "The reason Jesus has the reason Jesus has not yet come is because Christians aren't giving enough." Well, you're familiar with this, you see churches, you know, they’ve become mega malls, Disney World. They got fitness centers, and coffee shops and all kinds of things like that. Even theaters, restaurants. So much of contemporary gospel music that I used to be a part of when I used to counsel many of the artists and the and the people in that industry, the executives, is filled with this type of thing. They're constantly giving themselves awards, you know, the Dove Awards. I always wonder why not pastor awards, right? And the pastor of the year is Joel Osteen or whatever. I mean, that's kind of how it would work. Well, by the way, in other words, I'm very familiar with what would go on behind the scenes in that and I can assure you that Jesus would have never been nominated. Never.

So like the first century Jewish con artists, we've got hucksters today, that make 1000s of dollars, fleecing people, just like the money changers. So having seen this kind of sacrilege, in his father's house, Jesus returns to the temple, and he physically removes the religious phonies. I wish I could have seen that. And thereby he pronounced his condemnation upon Israel's worship. Verse 15, "He entered the temple and began to drive out those who were buying and selling in the temple, overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves; and He would not permit anyone to carry merchandise through the temple." Now, I am aware that there are people who are shocked that this passage of Scripture, they cannot believe Jesus behavior. What happened to the gentle Jesus, the Jesus who is just filled with love. And unfortunately, people that think this way, simply do not understand the holiness of God. Holiness is actually the all-encompassing attribute of his infinite perfection, his purity and his power. People don't understand that people have a low view of God and a very high view of themselves. And his holiness is really the very essence of his glory. You will recall that God gave us a terrifying vision of his glory when he manifested it visibly in the pillar of cloud and fire that once covered Mount Sinai, and then led the Israelites through the wilderness to the promised land. And in Scripture, every time we see a demonstration of God's glory, we behold his holiness. Again, the all-encompassing attribute of his infinite perfection, purity and power.

And beloved, it is a zeal for God's glory that unleashes the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. This is what produces genuine worship, and makes false worship, pretend worship disgusting, even to ourselves as it is to God. And a zeal for God's glory, causes our lives to redound to the glory of God and our souls to be flooded with the inexpressible joy of his presence. And you want to ask yourself, Do I have a zeal for the glory of God? Do I have a passion for the holiness of God? If not, please know that this kind of zeal simply cannot exist apart from a soul captivating, a sin destroying vision of the majesty of God. And if you cannot see the majesty of God, you will never understand what I'm trying to communicate to you, nor will you ever understand why Jesus was so incensed when he came to his Father's house. This is what's greatly missing in our evangelical culture today. Many worship what David Welch describes as a quote, "weightless God." Here's what he had to say, "It is one of the defining marks of our time that God is now weightless. I do not mean by this that he is a ethereal, but rather that he has become unimportant. He rests upon the world so in consequentially as not to be noticeable. He has lost his saliency for human life. Those who assure the pollsters of their belief in God's existence may nonetheless consider him less interesting than television. His commands less authoritative than their appetites for affluence and influence. His judgment, no more inspiring than the evening news, and his truth less compelling than the advertisers sweet fog of flattery and lies. That is weightlessness." End quote. Dear Christian, Don’t miss this. Jesus is God, he is infinitely holy. He is utterly separate from sin. And the temple was his Father's house that was to be the place where the divine presence would rest. And the infinite holiness of God, throughout Scripture, was always associated with God's presence in the temple. And unless you understand some of this, you will never have a zeal for God's glory and for His Holiness.

I want to camp on this concept for a moment and elaborate on the idea of God's presence in his holiness. You will recall, in Genesis chapter three and verse eight, we read, Adam and Eve, "heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden." The little phrase there "from the presence of" literally in the original language is "from before." And this is a technical type of terminology that is used to describe the sanctuary in the temple. In other words, God is walking now in the garden, and his presence is being manifested. In fact, grammatically, the Hebrew verb translated "walk"--"mithalek," is a unique kind of participle, indicating God's presence moved about constantly in the garden. I might add that the only other place this verb appears in this particular grammatical construction in the Hebrew is in passages describing God's presence descending upon the sanctuary. For example, in Exodus 33, nine whenever Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses. So what we read there in Genesis three is Adam and Eve hid themselves from God's presence that was moving about in his Edenic sanctuary.

Now what happened when they sinned? Well, they were removed from his presence in the garden. They violated one law, just one thing, that God asked, Do not eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. My point with this, dear friends is God's abiding presence will be withdrawn from his people when they disobey him. The ultimate punishment being death. We saw this in the garden, but we also see it in the sanctuary of his temple. Whenever his laws would be violated, especially those in Leviticus 26, his presence would be removed. And ultimately punishment would even include for the Israelites, being exiled from the land which contained the temple.

Let me elaborate upon this a little bit more because I want you to grasp the weight of all of this. It's interesting that God arranged both the Garden of Eden and the sanctuary to the tabernacle and temple, in an East/West orientation. Really interesting as we look at this. The scripture in Genesis chapter two beginning in verse eight, we read that, "The Lord God planted a garden toward the east in Eden." And the Hebrew word for East, "qadim" literally means faceward or frontward, indicating God's presence was in the western part of the garden. Genesis 3:24, "He drove the man out; and at the east of the Garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life." In other words, to prevent sinful man from returning to the west. Later Cain was driven to a land east of Eden, Genesis 4:16, away from God's presence. And throughout the Old Testament, we see an East/West arrangement of the tabernacle and the temple, an orientation that's attributed to the garden. It's also fascinating. East is always the direction of idolatry in the Old Testament. In Ezekiel eight verse 16, the Prophet says, then God "brought me into the inner corner of the Lord's house. And behold, at the entrance to the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about 25 men with their backs to the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east; and they were prostrating themselves eastward toward the sun." He's describing idolatry there. And in Exodus 27 verses 13 through 16. We read how that the altar in the tabernacle and later in the temple was positioned to the east of the edifice. And the only entrance to the Holy of Holies, positioned in the most westward part, opened eastward. Meaning that the priest had to approach the holy of holies from the east, to the west, to enter into the Holy of Holies. And it's interesting that just as God stationed his cherubim in Eden to guard the eastern entrance, so too God's presence above the Ark of the Covenant was entered from the east. And the cherubim served as the guardians of his holy presence, the divine presence that hovered over the mercy seat between the outstretched wings of the cherubim. And each year on Yom Kippur, the high priest would move from the east outside the camp and move westwardly toward the Holy of Holies. For example, when he would enter the tabernacle, he would pass by the sacred objects like the menorah, that probably symbolized the tree of life. And finally, he would enter into the Holy of Holies to offer the blood of the sacrifice, to propitiate, or to satisfy, the wrath of God that originally drove man away from God outside of the garden. What we see there is a reversal of the exile from God, experienced by Adam, and through Adam to all mankind. And we know, as we think about Israel, only through the shedding of innocent blood in their sacrificial system that God initiated, which pointed to Christ; only then could the nation be reconciled to God. And only through faith in his shed blood, can we be reconciled to God and only through Christ. Can Israel eventually be restored and fulfillment of both the Abrahamic and the new covenants? And there are there are numerous other passages that we don't have time to look at here that are undeniable parallels between Eden and the earthly temple. But the point that I'm trying to make here, that I'm laboring to make on your behalf, is that the ineffable presence of God is something that should overwhelm us. And it was this very presence that would be manifested in the tabernacle, and later the temple. And we could spend hours studying all of the stipulations that God had gave to protect the sanctuary, to protect from ritual impurity.

And I fear that a lot of these concepts, especially with respect to the holiness of God, and the glory of God, have been lost in our culture, where we worship a weightless God, a God that winks at sin, that tolerates everything and anything. This has manifested many times in modern worship; that is typically irreverent, bereft of awe. If you notice, there's very little that is transcendent these days. There is very little that is dignified today. Today, even in churches, everything has to be casual and flippant, lacking in dignity. It's interesting, because you think about the holiness of God, illustrated even in the portable sanctuary. Israelites could enter the courtyard, but bear in mind, they could not enter the tent in the tabernacle. Ordinary priests were allowed to enter into the holy place, but only the high priest could enter into the Holy of Holies one time per year. And what's interesting is God's holiness was even manifested in the craftsmanship of the tabernacle, and in the items that were used. Again, I want to show you how serious God is about his holiness. The two outer courts were constructed mainly by bronze, but gold was used in the inner court. Even the curtains that covered the frame of the tent reflected degrees of holiness. The innermost layer was made of fine linen that was manufactured from a plant and considered to be the purest of material. And then the next layer was of goat's hair. And then the outer layer was made of animal skins; skins were associated with death and were therefore the least holy. As you study the Scriptures, you see that there were differing levels of uncleanness that required various kinds of ritual purifications after being defiled. What God was constantly communicating to his people and what has been lost in our culture today, even in evangelicalism, is we can no longer discern between what is clean and what is unclean. We can no longer discern what is holy, and what is common. T. Desmond Alexander, in an excellent book "Face to Face with God: A Biblical Theology of Christ as Priest and Mediator," wrote this, quote, "Those who enter the holy place must conform to a level of holiness that exceeds what is expected of others. Leviticus 10 provides a vivid illustration of the danger posed by approaching God inappropriately." He went on to add, "The world of the Israelites is transformed by God's continual presence among them, as they reflect on the regulations and rituals that accompanied the construction of the portable sanctuary. They quickly appreciate that holiness is associated with perfection, purity and wholeness, whereas uncleanness is linked to imperfection, impurity and incompleteness." He went on to add, "Since holiness and uncleanness are associated with perfection and imperfection, respectively, it follows that holy living demands perfect behavior. The moral standards are reflected in the covenant obligations that God places on the Israelites to underline their importance the principal obligations of the Sinai covenant which God speaks directly to the Israelites at Mount Sinai, are later inscribed by God on stone tablets, and placed within the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies. God expects the Israelites to obey Him and keep His covenant so that they may become a holy nation, Exodus 19."

Well, obviously, all these matters pertaining to God's holiness, were carried over into the temple. And yet dear friends, it was against this unimaginable purity, that Jesus comes into the temple and sees all of this wickedness. Bear in mind that Jesus was an observant Jew in his life, to offer himself as the promised consolation of Israel. Remember at his birth, Jesus was presented at the temple in Luke 2:21. He was circumcised on the eighth day, according to the law, his mother Mary's ritual "mikveh" immersion, was in obedience to the purification laws. Even his dedication was accompanied by prescribed sacrifices, according to what was said in the law of the Lord, we read about this in Luke 2:24, a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons, coming out of Leviticus 5:11. His family, according to Luke 2:39, performed everything according to the law of the Lord. And this continued as they made annual pilgrimages to the temple for Passover. Jesus even performed the Jewish mitzvah on his 12th year when he reached puberty, Luke 2:42. And we read how Jesus even spent several days after Passover in the synagogue, which was located within the temple precinct, sitting at the feet of the rabbis. So my point with all of this is to help you see that throughout his life, and throughout eternity, Jesus had a holy and high regard for the temple.

Even the apostle Paul was an observant Jew in connection with the laws of the temple and assisted fellow Jewish believers that had become Christians in performing their temple obligations. We read about this in Acts. Perhaps now you have a better understanding of Jesus's zeal for his father's house, and part of his messianic role was to align the functions of the temple to the will of God. But that cannot happen ultimately, until he returns in judgment when Israel repents, in brokenness, and in mournful acknowledgement of their sin, especially as relates to the rejection of their Messiah. Then Israel will be saved, and it will be restored. Only then according to Malachi, three four will quote, "the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years." In fact, Zechariah describes the glory of his future coronation ceremony in Zechariah, six beginning of verse 12, "'Behold a man whose name is Branch,'" which by the way, was a messianic title that Zechariah used in one of his earlier visions, "'Behold, a man whose name is Branch, for He will branch out from where He is, and He will build the temple of the Lord. Yes, it is He who will build the temple of the Lord and He will bear the honor and set and rule on His throne. Thus, He will be a priest on His throne and the counsel of peace will be between the two offices'"-- referring to the priest and the king that typically fought amongst one another, because he will be both priest and king.

So with all of this background, Jesus runs off the merchants, verse 17. And it says, "And He began to teach and say to them, 'is it not written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations?'" For all the nations. We will see this ultimately in the millennial kingdom. You may recall in his dedicatory prayer for the temple, in First Kings eight, Solomon prayed in verse 41, and following, "'concerning the foreigner who is not of Your people, Israel, when he comes from a foreign country for Your namesake, (for they will hear of Your great name and Your mighty hand and of Your outstretched arm); when he comes and prays toward this house, hear in heaven, Your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know Your name, to fear You, as do Your people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by Your name.'"

We know that even Gentile proselytes worshipped at the temple. And many of them, like many of the Jews, were godly people. And how embarrassed godly Jews must have been, even in Jesus’ day to invite someone to church, so to speak, and to see all of this wickedness. You recall the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, who according to Acts 8:27, came to Jerusalem to worship. So again, he begins to teach. And at the end of verse 17, he says, "'But you have made it a robber’s den.'"

And then in conclusion, "The chief priests and the scribes heard this, and began seeking to destroy Him." Naturally, right? They were being exposed. You know, lies, demand tolerance. But truth welcomes scrutiny. And we read that "they were afraid of Him, for the whole crowd was astonished at His teaching. When evening came, they would go out of the city." In other words, they would return back to Bethany. "And as they were passing by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered from its roots. Being reminded, Peter said to Him, 'Rabbi look, the fig tree which You cursed, has withered.'" So indeed, there will be no harvest in that temple. And that temple even would soon be destroyed. O, dear friends, the power of Christ, to both bless as well as to curse. May I challenge you to examine your heart with respect to your own attitude towards worshiping the Lord? Is it a pretense? Is it merely Sunday in the South? Or is it a genuine expression of your love for God, and your passion to live for his glory, that your life would redound to his glory, that others would see Christ in you. If that is not the case and it's a mere pretense, I would plead with you to repent of that wickedness, lest God judges you severely. And if your worship is indeed as it should be, know this, it will not be something that only happens on Sunday morning. Sunday morning will merely be the ultimate expression of what you've been experiencing all week long. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for the eternal truths of your word that exposes each one of us. My how easy it is for us to play the hypocrite. Forgive us, wherever we do that. And give us a zeal for your glory, a passion for your holiness. And we know that that can only come by the power of your Spirit working in us through the use of your Word, and the fellowship of your people. So we commit that to you. And Father, for those that do not know you, perhaps those who are Christian in name only. I pray that your convicting work will be powerful, even this day, that they too might come to a place of genuine repentance and enjoy the miracle of the new birth. For it's in Christ's name that I pray. Amen.