About this sermon
Jesus curses a leafy but fruitless fig tree and then drives the merchants out of the temple, two acts that picture God’s judgment on a faithless Israel. The corrupt temple had shut out the Gentiles from the house of prayer for all nations. Christ now replaces the temple as the living temple, and no future rebuilt temple has a place in God’s plan. Believers need no special holy site, because Christ dwells with his people wherever they gather in his name.
Sermon transcript
Amen. Please remain standing for the reading of God’s Word as we continue our study and consideration of the Gospel of Mark this morning. We are in Mark, chapter 11, and my sermon text is Mark 11, verses 12 through 25. Mark, chapter 11, verses 12 through 25. Let’s hear God’s holy word. In the setting here, Jesus has finally arrived at Jerusalem. He has entered the city through his triumphal entry. And that brings us to our text for today. On the next day, when they had left Bethany, he became hungry. Seeing at a distance a fig tree and 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 robber’s den. The chief priests and the scribes heard this and began to seek how to destroy him, for they were afraid of him, for the whole crowd was astonished at his 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. Jesus answered, saying to them, have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, be taken up and cast into the sea and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him. Therefore, I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them and they will be granted you. Whenever you stand praying, forgive if you have anything against anyone so that your father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions. Amen. And as a background passage, I would also invite you to turn to Malachi chapter three. I’ll read the first three verses of Malachi chapter three.
Behold, I am going to send my messenger and he will clear the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple and 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 fuller’s soap. He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the Lord offerings in righteousness. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever. Let’s pray for God to bless the preaching of His Word. Once again, Heavenly Father, we ask that You would open our hearts and our minds to behold wondrous things from Your Word.
Grant that by Your Spirit we would be edified and built up in our faith. Grant that Jesus would be exalted through the proclamation of Your Word. And grant unto me, Your unworthy servant, the grace to declare Your Word with clarity and power and for the edification of Your people. In Jesus’ name we pray and all of God’s people said, amen. You may be seated. Title of my sermon this Lord’s Day morning is a curse, a cleansing and faith. And if you’re following along in your sermon outline page, there’s quite a number of key words that you can be listening for in my sermon today. Well, dear ones, the events in the life of our Lord that we read about in our passage for today have often proven to be a stumbling block to many Bible readers, not just Bible readers who are skeptical, but even Bible believing Christians can find this passage and the events that this passage records to be difficult.
They seem to be so uncharacteristic of Jesus. So contrary, especially to the sentimental, gentle Jesus, meek and mild picture of our Lord Jesus that is often promoted in Christian media and Christian educational materials and in our popular culture. And especially Bible critics will look at this passage and say, oh, this can’t be historical. This is not how the real historical Jesus would have acted. Cursing a fig tree and blowing a fuse in the temple and having a temper tantrum there. No, Jesus wouldn’t act like that. Well, friends, that’s sort of a misunderstanding of what’s going on here, as I hope to show. Contrary to the thinking of the Bible critics who often judge the actions of Jesus recorded by Mark in this passage to be contrary to the humble dignity and peaceful character of our Lord.
As we will see the actions of Jesus as recorded in this passage of God’s word are fully in line with what we learn elsewhere in God’s word about the real historical Lord Jesus Christ. And these actions of our Lord serve to remind us that as our Redeemer, our Lord Jesus Christ is the great and mighty prophet, priest and king of his people, God’s people. And in this particular passage, the prophethood and the kingship of Christ come to the forefront. Jesus Christ is a prophet and king who comes as the messenger of the covenant to deliver God’s covenant curses to a spiritually fruitless, faithless Israel. Our passage for today is a fulfillment of the prophecy recorded in Malachi chapter three, verses one through three, as Jesus comes as the messenger of the covenant to bring the covenant curses. against an unfaithful and fruitless Israel.
A faithless Israel that would soon crucify their own promised Messiah. Indeed, Jesus is presented here as a prophet and king who comes to cleanse his temple, and praise be to God, our Lord Jesus Christ comes to cleanse his living temple, the church, from everything that desecrates and defiles it. Now, what’s the setting and context of this passage? Well, these events, the events of the cursing of the fig tree, as well as the cleansing of the temple, take place after Mark’s record of our Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem at the beginning of what the scholars call Passion Week. The Passion Week is the week leading up to our Lord’s crucifixion. And what we have here in this passage is we have here two dramatic prophetic messianic actions. So let’s dive in to our text for today.
And as we consider, first of all, verses 12 through 14, as well as 20 through 21, I want you to observe, beloved, a dramatic depiction of God’s covenant curse upon fruitless Israel. What we have here is a dramatic depiction of God’s covenant curse coming upon a spiritually fruitless Israel. Let me read verses 12-14 again. It says, on the next day, the day after our Lord’s triumphal entry, when He had left Bethany, He was staying in Bethany just outside of Jerusalem. When they had left Bethany to go back into the city, what does it say? He, Jesus, 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.
And how does Jesus react to this? Here is this fig tree that is probably fully in leaf. And one would expect to find fruit, the fruit of the figs there on this leafy fig tree. And there’s there’s only leaves. There’s no fruit. How does Jesus respond? Verse 14, he said to it, may no one ever eat fruit from you again. And his disciples were listening. Poor little fruit, a fig tree or a fig tree to have Jesus Bring a curse upon it. What’s going on here? And then we notice after the cleansing of the temple and when they returned the following day, which would be Tuesday, probably of Passion Week, we read this in verses 20 and 21. 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. The Lord spoke the word of curse upon the fig tree and it was withered to the root. It was completely dead and worthless. Well, friends, both the cursing of the fig tree and the cleansing of the temple were what the theologians call enacted parables or prophetic drama. The intervening account of our Lord’s cleansing of the temple, which is sandwiched between the account of the cursing of the fig tree and its withering, shows that Mark saw a connection between these two events. Dr. William Hendrickson explains this in his commentary on this passage. He says, quote, in cursing the fig tree and in cleansing the temple, Jesus performed two symbolic and prophetic acts with one meaning. And what was that meaning?
Well, as Hendrickson explains, Jesus was predicting the downfall of unfruitful Israel. Not that he was, quote, through with the Jews, but that in the place of Israel, an international and everlasting kingdom would be established, a nation bringing forth not just leaves, but fruits and gathered from both Jews and Gentiles. And when Hendrickson there uses the term nation, he’s using it in sort of that poetic New Testament sense of the church as an international nation, an international community, including both Jew and Gentile, who believe in and confess the Lord Jesus Christ as Messiah and Savior and Son of God. Now, what do we learn in verse 12? Mark makes an interesting comment here as he introduces this passage. It says, on the next day, that would probably be Monday of Passion Week, the Monday before his crucifixion.
On the next day, when they had left Bethany, he became what? Jesus became hungry. Think about that. Jesus, the eternal divine son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity, became hungry. Well, we have to remember that Jesus is both true God and true man. He is the God man, fully God and fully man in one divine person. So this passing comment offered by Mark serves to highlight our Lord’s human nature. And by the way, as an aside, it’s just as important for your salvation and mine that Jesus Christ be truly, fully human, as well as truly, fully God in order to be our Redeemer and Savior. For only God has the power to save us from our sins, but He can only save us by representing us in our humanity. So in his incarnation, Jesus took upon himself our humanity, that he might represent us before the Father, that he might obey for us, and that ultimately he might die on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins.
And then we read again in verse 13, they’re making their trek towards Jerusalem from Bethany. And it says, seeing at a distance a fig tree and leaf, he went to see if perhaps he would find anything on it. You know, it’s fully in leaf apparently. It looks like it’s got, it should have the figs already on it. But when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves. And then Mark explains for his audience who may not be familiar with that particular area around Jerusalem, he explains, for it was not the season for figs. Well, what’s going on here? And what is the reason for this focus on the figs? And why does Jesus curse this fig tree for not providing him with fruit when it’s not the season for figs? Well, as another commentator, Dr.
Walter Wessel, explains, Fig trees around Jerusalem usually leaf out in March or April, but they do not produce figs till June. This tree was no exception. It was in full leaf, but as Mark tells his readers, there were no figs on it, quote, because it was not the season for figs. Now, perhaps this, again, perhaps this particular fig tree was so fully leafed out that it would give travelers the impression that perhaps it had produced its figs early. Perhaps the travelers could expect to find some fruit on it. But for all of its leafy show, it was in reality without any fruit. Now, what does this have to do with fruitless Israel? Well, it’s interesting if you know the Old Testament scriptures, especially if you’re familiar with the prophets. It’s interesting to observe that Israel is sometimes depicted in the Old Testament scriptures as under agricultural imagery, as a vine, for example, or as a fig tree, especially this is the case in the prophets.
And I just want to give you a few examples of that. Keep your finger here in Mark, chapter 11, and let’s turn back to Jeremiah, chapter 8, and look at verse 13. Jeremiah, chapter 8, verse 13. It says this, the Lord through Jeremiah says this, I will surely snatch them away, declares the Lord. There will be no grapes on the vine and no figs on the fig tree. And the leaf will wither. And what I have given them will pass away. Or consider Hosea chapter 9 verses 10 and 16. Hosea chapter 9. Verses 10 through 16, Hosea is right after Daniel. Hosea chapter 9, verse 10, it says this, I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness. I saw your forefathers as the earliest fruit on the fig tree in its first season. But they came to Baal Peor and devoted themselves to shame.
In other words, they fell into idolatry. They broke God’s covenant. They fell into shame and they became as detestable as that which they loved. And then skip down to verse 16, where it says Ephraim is stricken. Their root is dried up. They will bear no fruit, even though they bear children. I will slay the precious ones of their womb. In other words, again, we see this language of fruitfulness or lack of fruit and Israel being compared, God’s people being compared to a fig tree. Or consider Joel, chapter one, verse seven. Joel is right after Hosea. Joel, chapter one, verse seven. It says this. Again, describing Israel as a vine and a fig tree, it says, it is made my vine. Speaking of this mighty army of locusts that is coming, it is made my vine.
That would be Israel, a waste and my fig tree. Again, that would be God’s people splinters. It is stripped them bare and cast them away. Their branches have become white. So what’s all the point of this background information? Well, we need to have these Old Testament scriptures in view as we try to understand our Lord’s action here in cursing the fruitless but leafy fig tree. You see, friends, our Lord’s cursing of the fig tree, which is, by the way, the only destructive miracle that Jesus is recorded to have ever performed. This destructive miracle of the cursing of the fig tree was not an example of the Lord Jesus losing his cool, having sort of a toddler-esque temper tantrum or irrationally venting his anger upon a poor, innocent, helpless fig tree. No, instead, friends, our Lord’s cursing of the fig tree is likely intended as a symbolic picture of God’s judgment upon a spiritually faithless and fruitless Israel, an Israel that would soon murder.
The son of God, the Messiah, their own Messiah, it pictures God’s covenant curses as threatened by God in the Old Testament law revealed under Moses. curses, which would come upon Israel for their rejection and murder of the promised Messiah. Now, what are some lessons that we can learn from what we’ve considered so far from this passage of God’s word? Well, this passage reminds us, beloved, that God keeps his word of promise and judgment. We love to focus on the promises, right? And we should. But we also need to recognize that God threatens judgment to the impenitent and unbelieving, who persist in that impenitence and unbelief. So let us joyfully, by faith, embrace the promises of grace that are offered to us in the gospel of Jesus Christ. But let us also tremble with holy awe and reverent fear at his threats, and make sure that we are trusting in Christ as our Savior and Lord. so that we might escape the wrath to come.
For Jesus took that wrath upon Himself in the place of those who turn to Him in faith and repentance.” In this passage, another takeaway or lesson from this passage is that it seems to clearly imply that as a covenant nation, national Israel is over with forever. What a shocking thing for a pastor to say. National Israel is over forever. Well, look at what Jesus says. If Jesus is cursing of this fig tree, if the fig tree represents fruitless, faithless Israel and Jesus says, may no one ever eat fruit from you again. What that implies is that there’s going to be no more old covenant Israel. Again, this does not mean that God is through with the Jews. Our sovereign Lord continues to convert Jews to faith in Christ. This gentleman that we are going to have in April to do this classical concert for us, this outreach concert, Mr.
Sam Rotman, is himself a converted Jew who came to Christ while he was a student at Juilliard. My friends, God is not through with the Jews. That’s not what this means. Rather, it means that now God’s people are an international community. God’s church under the New Covenant is no longer limited to a theocratic nation. It is now an international body consisting of Jews and Gentiles who believe in Jesus as Messiah, Son of God, Lord and Savior. And that is A very clear teaching in the New Testament, but we miss it because of the kind of the false teachings that are out there with respect to national Israel. And I just want to take you to a few passages in the New Testament briefly that show that, indeed, the Israel of God is the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Consider Galatians chapter three, verses twenty five to twenty nine, Galatians three, verses twenty five to twenty nine. And here the Apostle Paul addressing the Galatian churches. These churches were predominantly Gentile churches of Gentile believers. And Paul says this. For you are all sons of God through what through association with Abraham, through becoming circumcised and joining the nation of Israel. No, you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who are baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. God has one people. There are not two peoples of God, Israel and the church. There’s one people of God, the true Israel of God, the church of our Lord Jesus Christ, consisting of Jews and Gentiles who believe in Jesus, as verse 29 says.
And if you belong to Christ, even if you’re a Gentile, in other words, if you belong to Christ, Then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise. Or we consider Ephesians 2, Ephesians chapter 2, which is right after Galatians, starting in verse 11, where Paul again is addressing Gentiles and he says this, Remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision, which is performed in the flesh by human hands. Remember that you were at that time and before the coming of Christ, you were separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. That was then, but this is now, as it says in verse 13. But now, in Christ Jesus, you who formerly were far off have been brought near.
How? By the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall by abolishing in His flesh the enmity that is the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross by it having put to death the enmity. And so, friends, this being the case, let us avoid the common, but quite frankly, Judaizing false teaching of dispensational theology. What’s that, pastor? If you’re not familiar with what it is, it’s basically a method of interpreting the Bible, which sees a sharp distinction between Old Testament Israel and the New Covenant Church. It is a theology that says that Jews as Jews, ethnically and racially speaking, are still God’s covenant people, even without faith in Jesus Christ.
It also teaches that the land of Israel is still the promised land, that that piece of real estate in the Middle East still has significance in God’s historic plan and that one day there will be a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem. But friends, from a redemptive historical perspective, that’s regress, that’s that’s stepping backwards in terms of the progress of redemptive history. Jesus, the Messiah, has come. He has done away with the temple. He is the living temple. He is the fulfillment of that temple imagery. And we who are united to him, we are a temple of God in union with Christ. Christ is our promised land. The new heavens and the new earth where in righteousness dwells is the ultimate goal and the ultimate promised land that we that we are heading for as pilgrims. in this fallen world.
So let us avoid these errors. And instead, let us realize that if we are in Christ, we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and we in the church, we are the body of Christ, whether we be Jew or Gentile, whether we be male or female, whether we be American or from some other part of the world, we are all united in one body through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. But what was Israel’s problem back then? Well, again, Israel was bustling with religious activity. If you were to get into a time machine and go back to the first century and go to Jerusalem and see the magnificent Jerusalem temple, you would see a flurry of activity. You see all kinds of religious activity going on, sacrifices being offered, priests walking about the temple corridors and so forth.
There was a lot of external formal religion going on. But it was devoid of spiritual fruit. Let us, beloved, be warned against the dangers of a merely external, formal religion devoid of a living, saving faith in the true and living God. Fig leaf religion no more saves today than it did in the time of Adam and Eve or in the case of Israel, the Israel of our Lord’s time. The Israel of our Lord’s time had a lot of leaves of external religious activity, but there was no fruit. And so Jesus pronounces a curse upon fruitless, faithless Israel. Only a living, saving faith in Christ connects us to the living Christ. Do you have a living, saving faith in Christ? Are you trusting in Christ and Christ alone as your Lord and Savior? Dear listener, if you’re not sure, why don’t you make sure today?
Call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and the word of God promises you shall be saved. Jesus died upon the cross to pay the penalty for sin, and he rose from the dead. so that all who believe in him all who trust in him might not perish but have everlasting life. Believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and repent of your sin today and you will know and you by the grace of God will begin bearing spiritual fruit the fruit and the outflow of that faith. So we’ve seen the Lord’s cursing of the fig tree and the significance of that. But behold, next, how Christ, the triumphant king, cleanses his temple. We read about that in verses 15 through 19. It says this. Then they came to Jerusalem. This was after the cursing of the fig tree.
They come to Jerusalem and Jesus enters the temple. And what does he begin to do to drive out those who were buying and selling in the temple? And he 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. Some folks were using the court of the Gentiles, this sacred precinct of the temple, to take shortcuts in their merchandising activity, to take their wares through that to other parts of the city. And Jesus forbade that. In verse 17, 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 robber’s den. Now, this is likely our Lord’s second temple cleansing.
If you read John’s gospel, John records our Lord cleansing the temple at the beginning of his ministry. And Mark and the other synoptics record this as taking place toward the end of our Lord’s ministry. And some make the case that, well, John arranges his material more thematically rather than chronologically. And OK, that’s one possible way to harmonize the two. But it seems to me that we should really understand that there were two temple cleansings. And what is the setting here? Why does our Lord take such offense at the activities that are going on here in the temple? Why does he overturn the tables of the money changers? Why does he drive and drive out the these those who are buying and selling and so forth? Why this seemingly violent action from Jesus, the Prince of Peace?
Well, first of all, It’s important to understand that this activity turned the court of the Gentiles, the only place in the temple precincts where God fearing Gentiles could pray to the true and living God, the God of Israel, this activity that took place there in the court of the Gentiles, turned that place into a noisy, smelly marketplace. Imagine if you were a Gentile who had heard about the mighty acts of God. You’d heard about how God rescued his people, Israel, from their slavery in Egypt and brought them through the Red Sea into the promised land and and how this God commanded his people to build a temple, which was a symbol of his presence and reign. amongst his people, his revelatory presence. And imagine that you’re a Gentile living back then. You come to believe in the true God, the God of Israel, and you desire to go worship this true God in his temple.
And you make a pilgrimage and you arrive at the temple, this beautiful temple in Jerusalem. And you are so looking forward to worshiping God in the temple, in this sacred, holy place. And you show up to the only place in the temple where you as a Gentile are allowed to worship. And what do you see? You enter the court of the Gentiles and you’re immediately confronted with filth and animal smells and noise and all kinds of merchandising activity going on. This is why one of the reasons why Jesus took such offense. After all, God had designed the temple to be, as Jesus reminds them, a house of prayer, not just for the Jewish nation, but for all the nations, as it says in Isaiah 56, verse 7, which Jesus quotes here in verse 17. This was also offensive.
These activities in the temple precincts were also offensive to Jesus because they desecrated with secular activity a sacred, holy place that had been set apart for the holy activities of prayer and worship. The temple, this was Jesus’s temple. Jesus was coming to his own temple. He’s God in the flesh. This is his house. And this is how they’re treating his holy house. with secular activities of changing money and buying and selling the animals. Yes, those animals were used for sacrifice at the temple, but this was essentially turning a holy place set apart for holy activities into a secular marketplace. In addition, the money changing activity that went on in this sacred precinct was sadly, from what I understand, was sadly often abused. And the money changers often charged exorbitant rates to exchange the currency, and therefore they ended up turning this sacred space into, literally, into a robber’s den, as verse 17, as Jesus again points out in verse 17.
That, by the way, is a reference to Jeremiah 7, verse 11. And by the way, you might say, well, why was there a need to exchange money? And why was there a need to sell and, you know, to buy these animals? Well, think about it. If you are a pilgrim, the Israelites, every male in Israel was required by God and His law to go to the temple once a year to participate in the feast activities. This was the feast of the Passover. And so say that you were an Israelite, an observant Israelite, and you lived a long distance from Jerusalem. Now, you could bring some animals with you on the journey to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the Lord, but you could get there and the priests could examine your animals and say, I’m sorry, they’re not unblemished, they’re not acceptable for sacrifice.
It would be better to bring your money, your currency, to the temple and then buy animals there, animals that had already been checked out by the priest as being appropriate for sacrifice. And furthermore, the only money that was acceptable for the temple tax was the equivalent of the Hebrew shekel, the Israelite shekel. And so if you were bringing Roman money, you needed to have that exchanged in order to pay the temple tax. So the activities there were not invalid. It’s just they were taking place in the wrong place. And they were taking place in the wrong place with the knowledge of the high priests and those temple authorities who should have made sure that the sacredness of that holy space was guarded. Dr. Walter Wessel explains the significance of our Lord’s action here. He says, exorbitant prices were often charged for changing the currency.
By overturning the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, Jesus was directly challenging the authority of the high priest because they were there by his authorization. The high priest and the temple authorities knew what was going on and they were probably profiting from it as well. Those exorbitant prices that were being charged. It’s very likely that the high priest was was getting a part of that. And so that kind of explains the reaction of the chief priests in the temple authorities in verse 18. It says the chief priests and the scribes heard this and repented of their desecration of the holy place of God. And they they said, yes, Lord, we agree that this needs to be cleansed and we repent of this. Is that how they respond? No, it says 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 his teaching. They were afraid of Jesus because Jesus was a threat to their power and influence over the people. And Jesus was a threat to their pocketbook as well. So they said, instead of repenting, instead of repenting, they seek to destroy him. They dig in their heels and seek to destroy him. Just a couple lessons we can glean from this portion of our passage. Friends, this teaches us that our Lord is dishonored when his people desecrate his holy ordinances. When the holy things of the Lord are secularized, for example, our Lord, his holy name is desecrated. Well, how how is that done today in the new covenant context? Well, think about it this way. Let me just give you an example. We believe in the Reformed faith, we believe that the preaching of God’s Word is a holy ordinance of God.
When you come to Grace Church and you hear preaching, you don’t just come, I hope you don’t come to hear Jeff Willauer preach. Jeff Willauer is a nobody. Jesus Christ is what you need to come for. And you need to come to hear the Word of God. It’s my job as a servant. That’s what the word minister means as a servant of the word to feed you with the word of God. But let’s say that I got up behind this pulpit and instead of preaching a sermon based upon the word of God and expounding the word of God and applying it to you instead, I gave you maybe a light inspirational pep talk. Maybe I gave you a life coaching TED talk or a moralistic lesson or perhaps a book report. of an edifying book that I recently read.
Now, there’s a place for those kinds of things, right? But that would be a desecration of the holy ordinance of preaching. And sadly, that desecration takes place far too often, even in Bible-believing churches. I’ve even seen it in Reformed churches. Just to give you a a brief illustration. And by the way, we’re not going to get to my third point today. We won’t have the time to do that. We’ll pick that up on the next Lord’s Day. So if you’re looking at your watches and saying, oh boy, this is going to be a long one, let me assure you, we’ll pick up the third point on the next Lord’s Day. But I recall, it was a number of years ago, Sharon and I were were out of town visiting relatives and and we found a PCA church to attend on a particular Lord’s Day.
Very friendly people, a warm, welcoming church. And and I was really looking forward. You know, I’m a pastor. I don’t know if I am a preacher. I don’t often get a chance to sit under the preaching of the word. So I was looking forward to hearing a Bible based sermon. And we went to we intentionally chose this PCA church and most PCA churches, I believe, are very faithful and seek to faithfully preach the word. But on this particular Lord’s Day, the pastor, I think after reading a brief scripture passage, the content of his sermon was, I believe, a history lesson having to do with maybe the faith of George Washington or something like that. I was very disappointed. I would suggest to you, brothers and sisters, if I were if I were an elder in that church, I would rebuke that pastor.
I would perhaps bring charges against that pastor. That is not the pastor’s job to give a history lesson, maybe during a Sunday school class or on some other special occasion. The pastor’s job is to preach the word that is a holy ordinance of God, not to preach or give a lesson about his own political views or cultural views or that are divorced from the scriptures or anything like that. But to preach the word beloved, whether we’re talking about the preaching of the word or the sacraments or prayer or worship, let us reverence his holy name by treating his ordinances with respect and seriousness. And let us remember in closing, that we are the temple of the Lord in union with Jesus Christ. We no longer, praise God, we no longer have to travel to a special place, a special physical building like a temple or a shrine. in order to experience God’s direct revelatory presence, in order to worship Him appropriately.
And praise God, aren’t you glad that when you come to church on Sunday, you don’t have to come with a sheep or a goat and a knife ready to slit its throat and offer it on an altar? Isn’t that a blessing? Praise God for that. Because Christ offered that final sacrifice on the cross. There is no more Holy Spirit hotspot, if you will, located at some special place, whether it be the Jerusalem temple or nowadays, Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky, where that revival so-called is going on. And I’m not critical of students wanting to get together and pray and worship. Praise God for that. So many are traveling to that place today thinking that, you know, that there’s something special going on there and I want to be where the action is. Well, guess what?
If Christ is your Lord and Savior, you have received, according to Scripture, every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. You don’t need to travel to a special place to imbibe some special spiritual juju that might be going on there. You are indwelt by the spirit. You have access to the word of God. And not only that, you have access to the community of God’s people. We together are a temple of God in the Lord. Where is the Holy Spirit hotspot today? Wherever God’s people meet in the name of Christ for holy worship, for Christ is there by his word and spirit. As we are reminded by the Apostle Peter in first Peter, Chapter two, four and five, it says, and coming to him as to a living stone, which has been rejected by men, but his choice and precious in the sight of God.
You also, as living stones are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Praise God for that. Brothers and sisters, we are living stones in the living temple of God in union with Christ. Let’s live out our identity in Christ. Amen. Let us pray. Gracious Lord and Father in heaven, we thank you and praise you, God, that you continue to work in your church by your spirit, drawing people from every tribe and tongue and people and nation into this one body of Christ. And we thank you, Lord, that it is a body that extends throughout the world and how we look forward, O God, to that day in the new heavens and the new earth, where we will join together with our brothers and sisters in Christ from all over the world and from all ages of human history before the throne of God and the Lamb, singing praises unto you forever and ever.
In the meantime, Lord, abide with us and strengthen us by your grace that we might be faithful disciples in our day to day lives. We pray these things in Jesus name and all of God’s people said, amen. Let’s close our time of worship by rising and we’ll sing together him for 36. My faith has found a resting place for 36.
The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.