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Jesus's Identity Amplified
Mark 11:1-26
Pastor Josh Burrill​​
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Introduction:
Remember who Jesus was….Jesus of Nazareth
Remember the “hushing’
That time was now over
I. Lord of the Kingdom (1-11)
A. Plans for a donkey
7 verses given to the securing of the donkey (show photo/map)
Two disciples – James and John I wonder?
“The Lord has need of it”
B. Significance of the donkey
Zechariah 9:9-10 ““Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey. I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim And the horse from Jerusalem; The battle bow shall be cut off. He shall speak peace to the nations; His dominion shall be ‘from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the earth.’
1 Kings 1:33
Absolom had tried to take the kingdom
Adonijah had tried to take the kingdom
David had promised Bathsheba that the kingdom would go to Solomon
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And the king said to them, “Take with you the servants of your lord and have Solomon my son ride on my own mule, and bring him down to Gihon. 34 And let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet there anoint him king over Israel. Then blow the trumpet and say, ‘Long live King Solomon!”
The son of David who is the rightful king will ride in on a donkey…and here comes Jesus, the son of David.
C. Response to the donkey rider
This is the only time we ever read of Jesus riding an animal.
France “This was a blatant messianic self-advertisement”
Response -
“Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!”
Psalm 118:19-29
“Open to me the gates of righteousness; I will go through them, And I will praise the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord, Through which the righteous shall enter. I will praise You, For You have answered me, And have become my salvation. The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord’s doing; It is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day the Lord has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it. Save now, I pray, O Lord; O Lord, I pray, send now prosperity. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! We have blessed you from the house of the Lord. God is the Lord, And He has given us light; Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar. You are my God, and I will praise You; You are my God, I will exalt You. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.”
“Blessed is the kingdom of our father David That comes in the name of the Lord!”
2 Samuel 7:16 “And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever.”
“Hosanna in the highest!”
Psalm 148:1-4 “Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens; Praise Him in the heights!Praise Him, all His angels; Praise Him, all His hosts! Praise Him, sun and moon; Praise Him, all you stars of light! Praise Him, you heavens of heavens, And you waters above the heavens!”
D. Done with the donkey
“And Jesus went into Jerusalem and into the temple. So when He had looked around at all things, as the hour was already late, He went out to Bethany with the twelve.”
Summary: Jesus had come to Jerusalem. His appointed time had come. He had established His identity through His works, He taught His disciples what serving the king looks like, and now He would put forward His identity in the capitol city in unmistakable terms. He was the King of the Jews; God’s chosen One predicted by the prophets.
And this is the title that would stand at the centre of His Roman trial, and in the end, be nailed to the cross above his head. Jesus’s claim was unmistakable.
15:2 “Then Pilate asked Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?” He answered and said to him, “It is as you say.”
15:9 “But Pilate answered (the multitude), saying, “Do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?”
15:12 “Pilate answered and said to them again, “What then do you want me to do with Him whom you call the King of the Jews?”
15:18 (The soldiers) “began to salute Him, “Hail, King of the Jews!”
15:26 “And the inscription of His accusation was written above: THE KING OF THE JEWS”
15:32 chief priests…”Let the Christ, the King of Israel, descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe.”
Jesus would do better than that. He would allow Himself to die in order to absorb God’s wrath against sinners so you and I can be forgiven when we cry out for God’s mercy….and then He rose from the dead to secure His eternal kingship and to secure the resurrection of all who believe in Him.
II. Lord of Judgement (12-14)
The fact that the fig tree had leaves visible at a distance indicated, though it was early for figs, that there may be figs or small buds on it.
When you begin looking through your Old Testament you find that figs and grapes together are used illustratively multiple times to indicate Israel’s spiritual fruitfulness or its spiritual failure. Everyone recognized the enjoyment of a ripe grape or fig harvest, and likewise everyone recognized the disappointment, and even devastation of a crop failure.
Jeremiah 8:8-13 ““How can you say, ‘We are wise, And the law of the Lord is with us’? Look, the false pen of the scribe certainly works falsehood. The wise men are ashamed, They are dismayed and taken. Behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord; So what wisdom do they have? Therefore I will give their wives to others, And their fields to those who will inherit them;Because from the least even to the greatest Everyone is given to covetousness; From the prophet even to the priest Everyone deals falsely. For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of My people superficially, Saying, ‘Peace, peace!’ When there is no peace. Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No! They were not at all ashamed, Nor did they know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; In the time of their punishment They shall be cast down,” says the Lord. “I will surely consume them,” says the Lord. “No grapes shall be on the vine, Nor figs on the fig tree, And the leaf shall fade; And the things I have given them shall pass away from them.” ’ ”
Micah 7:1-4 “Woe is me! For I am like those who gather summer fruits, Like those who glean vintage grapes; There is no cluster to eat Of the first-ripe fruit which my soul desires. The faithful man has perished from the earth, And there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; Every man hunts his brother with a net. That they may successfully do evil with both hands— The prince asks for gifts, The judge seeks a bribe, And the great man utters his evil desire; So they scheme together. The best of them is like a brier; The most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge; The day of your watchman and your punishment comes; Now shall be their perplexity.”
Other passages: Jeremiah 24:1-10, Hosea 9:10
The fig tree was a parable of what was happening to Israel – it was fruitful in appearance only.
God is looking for the fruit of praise, obedience, and love among His people.
John 15:1-8
“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
Illustration of Application
III. Lord of the Temple (15-19)
What was illustrated by the tree is now seen in the temple as Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courtyard. He had surveyed the courtyard the evening before and made his plan for another display of Messiahship along with a pronouncement of judgment on unfruitful Israel.
Show photo of temple:
The temple complex covered 150,000 square meters. (To compare, the granaries in Floriana cover 10,000 square meters) Probably St. George’s square in Valletta is of similar sized to the granaries. The temple complex was 15 times larger than the area of the granaries.
A. Jesus’s Actions in the Temple Amplified His Identity as Messiah
In the prophets, one of the expected actions of the Messiah was that he would purify temple worship.
Malachi 7:1-4. “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. “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 launderers’ soap. 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.“Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem Will be pleasant to the Lord, As in the days of old, As in former years.
We could also look at the end of Zechariah 14 and Ezekiel 37:26-28
Probably, the tables were back up the next morning and the courtyards were full of animals and people carrying things through again.
This was not a failed attempt at short-term reform of the system, but a symbolic declaration of the end time judgement the Messiah would bring about to purify Israel’s worship, and in doing so, He was declaring that it would be He, Himself, who would execute God’s cleansing on the appointed day.
B. Jesus’s Proclamation in the Temple Highlighted Israel’s Fruitlessness
“Then He taught, saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ”
Isaiah 56:6-8 “ “Also the sons of the foreigner Who join themselves to the Lord, to serve Him,And to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants— Everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, And holds fast My covenant— 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 Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, says, “Yet I will gather to him Others besides those who are gathered to him.”
Jeremiah 7:11 “Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know, 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’? 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. “But go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I set My name at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel. And now, because you have done all these works,” says the Lord, “and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I called you, but you did not answer, therefore I will do to the house which is called by My name, in which you trust, and to this place which I gave to you and your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brethren—the whole posterity of Ephraim.
Back to the gates of Psalm 118 for a moment
“Open to me the gates of righteousness; I will go through them, And I will praise the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord, Through which the righteous shall enter. I will praise You, For You have answered me, And have become my salvation
Allen P. Ross on the righteous gates, “This is the gate of the LORD through which the righteous may enter”—and only the righteous.”[2]
Psalm 24:3-5 Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, Nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive blessing from the Lord, And righteousness from the God of his salvation.
Psalm 15:1-3 O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart; who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend;
The New Testament speaks of the gathered church as God’s temple. Does this mean that we must be perfect in order to gather with the church?
No! But it does mean that we must be sensitive and honest concerning our sin; confessing it and repenting of it, and in that spiritual posture, praising God together with the church for his forgiveness as we seek help for growth in spiritual fruitfulness.
Otherwise, the church slips into being a comfortable club for sinners who aren’t concerned about their sin….in short, it becomes a den of thieves, and falls under the condemnation of the King.
1 Timothy 2:8-10 “ I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling; likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with good works.”
If Jesus came into our church one Sunday and spent an hour and a half with us, looking around, surveying the scene, and then went home to consider what he observed (like he did the evening before in Jerusalem), what would He prepare Himself to do and say when He came back?
IV. Lord of the Impossible (20-26)
Read text:
The fig tree has two functions in our text:
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It symbolizes the just judgement of unfruitful Isreal
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It illustrates the power of prayer
While the temple should have been a place of praise and petition it had become a place of prestige and profit. So, as Jesus used the tree to illustrate the failure of Isreal and their impending judgment, he also used the tree to illustrate the power of a praying community…to illustrate ”the theme of God’s power operating very dramatically through a human word.” - R.T. France
“Removal of mountain into the sea” a proverbial expression for the impossible – similar to a camel going through the eye of a needle (Mark 10:25)
Powerful Prayer Rests on Two Conditions:
a. Faith
-not doubting the power of God (believing his ability)
-asking expectantly (believing his goodness)
Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
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b. Forgiveness
-not harbouring bitterness against others
These are not all the conditions that Jesus gave for prayer (see below), but perhaps they are our two greatest hindrances to seeing God use our word of prayer in extraordinary ways.
From Mark Strauss (conditions for prayer, in addition to faith)
-asking according to God’s will (1 John 5:14)
-asking in Jesus’s name – in accord with the person and work of Christ – (Jn. 14:13-14; 15:16; 16:23-24, 26)
-asking from a position of obedience (1 John 3:21-22)
-having forgiven others in the same way God has forgiven us (Mark 11:25)
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Conclusion:
Jesus is the Messiah, the King of Israel, who will rule the nations as the Bible has predicted.
He amplified his identity by:
-his approach to Israel on a donkey as he received praises
-his symbolic cleansing of God’s temple which exemplified Israel’s fruitlessness
We are to rightly respond to Jesus by:
-exhibiting the fruit of righteousness
-expressing our faith and forgiveness through prayer together with God's people
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[2] Allen P. Ross, A Commentary on the Psalms (90–150): Commentary, vol. 3, Kregel Exegetical Library (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic, 2016)