Well, we are now entering that time. We're entering the end zone of this time of year called Easter. There's a big buildup often to the big celebrations of the year our society has. We have them for Christmas. We have them for all sorts of periods. Easter's a big one. It's a big one in Bendigo. And we're now entering that zone. It's four weeks away is Easter. And go on to the days, of course, when it was a novelty on social media to post some sort of picture that you've noticed hot cross buns coming out as early as February. Used to be, you know, people would put on Facebook, ah, I see hot cross buns in February. Go on to those days because this last year, I kid you not, on New Year's Day, a friend of mine put a picture up, they're in Woolies, and what did they see? Hot cross buns on New Year's Day. Now, next, of course, the next level is Boxing Day, right? It's when it's Boxing Day, that's when you'll see hot cross buns coming out. It's about as early as you can get the day after Christmas. But, of course, we're entering that season of Easter, and we look forward to Easter for a whole bunch of reasons. We love Easter, for it's a bit of a break. Perhaps it's the school holidays, the break from school, holidays away, Bendigo Festival, the possibilities are all there before us. For anyone though who's thinking about Jesus, we can't help but think, what would it have been like for Jesus leading up to Passover? What would be the conversations, the things to look forward to? What was Jesus looking forward to? Now we know from the last few sermons, from the last few passages, we see Jesus has set his face towards Jerusalem. And as we come to chapter 11 this morning, chapter 11 is the first day of Passover week. So as we are four weeks from Easter, as we come to chapter 11 of Mark's gospel, he is a week away from the cross and he enters Jerusalem. He enters that week of all weeks. The King enters the City of Kings because he has come to do his saving, conquering work. As you see there, you see in the passage that Bren just read, as Jesus' disciples come near Jerusalem, they arrive first at the eastern suburbs. You know, it's Bethpage and Bethany, it's eastern suburb living. It's kind of like if you want to be a commuter into Jerusalem, but don't want to live in Jerusalem, well, you live in Bethpage and Bethany. And so that's where they come to. Perhaps they stay in Martha and Mary's house and Lazarus would have been there. We know from John's gospel, this is what happens. They end up staying in that house. Imagine that dinner table conversation. Hey Lazarus, how you been? Well, I was dead. I'm feeling better now I'm alive. But as they say, nothing a good resurrection can't fix in the one to come. So they're staying there, they're staying overnight, they're doing their overnight thing, staying there, but going to Jerusalem each day. And we see as they go into Jerusalem with the first day, Jesus is sovereignly making some arrangements for the travel. and he arranges for them to go and get a donkey's colt. Now a colt is, if you're sort of new to horse world or donkey world, a colt is something that is four years or younger. It's a male, young male horse or donkey. It's a donkey's colt. And you think, hang on a minute, Jesus is going to just kind of take a donkey's colt? Well, he's going to bring it back. You know, he's not taking it for a test drive. He's going to bring it back. Why? The donkey's colt symbolizes something. Here is the king coming to the city of kings. The place is full of expectation. The king is coming. What do you expect the king to come riding on? Perhaps a chariot or a horse, but no, it's not a war horse. The king comes in humility, riding on something you'd more likely see in a petting zoo. Zechariah 9 verse 9. Rejoice, O greatly, daughter of Zion. Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your king is coming to you, righteous and having salvation is he. And he is humble, and you won't find him high on a high horse. He is, Zechariah 9 verse 9, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. He's not even on a full-grown adult donkey. He's on the little version. He's on the mini-minor of donkeys. Why? Because Jesus, the King, the God-King, the God-Man, this is God, coming to the City of Kings, the City of God, where God dwells, and He comes on His own terms. He will not come in the way that we want him to come. Jesus, won't you be a bit more famous than that? Could you not be a bit more impressive, Jesus? We want you to come so you impress our friends and they'll buy tickets to the event. He says, I come humbly. And the people see him come. And as he comes to the city of kings, We hear them shout out. Now, here's a bit of a preview for this sermon. It's full of Old Testament quotations. I'm going to limit them though, so we'll hear for about half an hour and not half a day. But we read from our cross-reference passage, the first one, Psalm 118. They quote this. They shout out, they sing, they cry out, Hosanna! Hosanna is a combo word. It's a combo word of literally, save us, we pray. Psalm 118, save us, we pray, O Lord. O Lord, we pray, give us success. Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. We bless you from the house of the Lord. That is the temple. This is the city of the temple. They're singing of Him. They recognize Him. You are the King. You are the One. And as He comes into His coming kingdom, Jesus Himself, God Himself, enters the city of God. God Himself goes into the temple we saw. He goes to the center of life there, to the place where God Himself dwells. There is God. There is the King. There is Jesus. And what does He do, verse 11? He looks around at everything and He leaves. What's going on there? Mark writes, you'll notice there in Mark's commentary on this, his narrative, he looked around at everything, verse 11, and as it was already late, he went out to Bethany, back out to Bethany with the 12. Now, is he just doing that because, oh, I can see the disciples had a long day. You guys need a nap. Is that why? Well, it was late. Why go in the first place? We see why he goes in. We see in the very next scene. Do you see what's happening? Malachi 3.1, behold, I send my messenger. He will prepare the way before me and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. Jesus goes to his temple and he goes with intention and he has a look around and he sees everything going on in that temple. He makes an assessment because what does Jesus see? The whole thing is a fruitless tree. That brings us to the next scene, verses 12 to 14. We see in verse 12, perhaps it's just after breakfast, or it's at breakfast, and we see in verse 12, Jesus is hungry. And he sees a fig tree in the distance, and that fig tree has leaves, beautiful, but it's got no fruit. And Jesus talks to the tree. He literally says to the tree, may no one ever eat fruit from you again. And Mark writes, the disciples heard it, whether they thought it was a bit weird, but whatever the case may be, they heard it. What's going on here? Jesus curses a fig tree that has leaves, but as Mark writes, it's not the season for figs. So why is it producing leaves? Why is there no figs? And why is Jesus cursing a tree that's not producing figs when it's not the season anyway? What's going on? Is this what's going on? Is Jesus just a tradie from town? You know, he doesn't understand ag things, doesn't understand leaves and figs and seasons. No, no, no, no, no. It's not that. Is Jesus just a bit mixed up? Is that what's going on? No, because think about who this is. We know now by mass gospel that Jesus is God. Jesus knows the fruit of human hearts. He knows the fruit of fig trees. Who designed fig trees? Jesus did. Fig trees are Jesus' idea. It's his invention. Jesus is not confused. Jesus is not just taking it out on a fig tree because he's hangry. Jesus intentionally is showing them, us, everyone, something. Jesus is picking up what we see in the fig tree, how it represents Israel throughout the scriptures. There are lots of analogies and illustrations about God's people Israel throughout the Old Testament. One of them is a fig tree. Israel is often associated with being a fig tree. And Jesus is seeing the problem of the temple the night before where it's fruitless and curses a fig tree symbolizing Israel saying, you're fruitless. You have all the leaves. You look impressive. You're doing all the right things, but you're fruitless. You will never grow fruit again. So then we pick it up in the next scene in verse 15. Jesus enters the temple. What is the temple? The temple is the focal point of worship for the life of Israel at the time. Yes, there are synagogues, places of gatherings, but there is this temple, this place where we worship God, where we come to make sacrifice, where we have atonement for sin, that place. And here we have this famous scene that Jesus goes into the temple and he turns tables. And friends, how many times have you heard this misapplied? I've heard people justify their own anger issues by saying, yeah, I'm like Jesus. That's why I'm angry. I can get angry because Jesus was angry. I say, no, you can't. Yeah, I can. He's turning tables. I'll turn a table on you. I said, this is not being like Jesus. This is like being just an angry person with anger issues. That is a total misapplication of what's going on here. Jesus does not go into the temple to turn tables so that you can just cut sick on somebody. All right? If you think that's the case, you think that Jesus is some sort of muscle-bound man that justifies your muscle-bound existence and anger issues, you've not read. Have you not read? Read. Read the passage. This is a scene teaching us the problem that Jesus sees is the problem that we ought to see is wrong worship. Look at what Jesus does and understand by what Jesus says. See Jesus actually quotes lots of the Old Testament in this moment. He quotes which was our call to worship from Isaiah 56 7. He quotes from that cross-reference reading, a second cross-reference reading from Jeremiah 7-11. If you saw my study, I've got a little booklet. I write things in my pencil at home. It's full of possible cross-reference readings. I'm going to pick like two and then a call to worship. It's so tempting just to go, let's just have a whole service and read all the cross-reference readings. But we're not. Suffice to say, in all those readings, In Mark 11 verse 17, Jesus gets all the Bible and goes this, and he was teaching them, saying to them, so if he's teaching, we need to listen. He's teaching them, saying 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 den of robbers. Get this, there's nothing wrong with money changing in the temple. There's nothing wrong with pigeons in the temple. It's not as if we look at pigeons and go, well, they're the rats of the sky, and so they shouldn't belong in the temple. In fact, money changing was allowed in scripture. Pigeon selling was allowed in scripture. According to Exodus 30, when many people from the nations come to the temple, what sort of coinage do you think they have? got the coinage from the nations they come to the temple so there's an exchange system set up where they can get the shekel which is the temple coinage and pay for the things they need to make sacrifice not only that but in Leviticus 14 if you are too poor to afford a sheep or a goat you are allowed to buy pigeons pigeons I assume are cheaper I imagine they are There's provision for the poor here. So look at this, Jesus looking at a system that scripture gives where there's provision for the poor and for money exchange, but he's got a problem. Because the problem is not just the money exchange. The problem is not just the pigeons. Can we look past that? Jesus is a heart reader because he's God. You can even be doing the right things. And your heart and your affections are not for the Lord himself. The problem is deeper. It's as deep as roots and as obvious as fruit on a tree. Where there were leaves, God was looking for fruit. Jeremiah 7. We read this. We read these words. Jeremiah 7 verse 4. Do not trust in these deceptive words. This is the temple. This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord. They were doing all the right things. They were so busy. Busy in front of everyone else, doing all the right things. and their hearts were not for the Lord. God's people were busy doing their thing, but the temple life had ceased to be focused on being a house of prayer. Everyone was busy, but they were not busy gathering to worship God by faith. They were being like a fruitless fig tree. All this meant that the very people that were meant to be served by this, who was to receive the blessing that Abraham was given? There's the temple in Jerusalem, Jerusalem in Judea, Judea in that region and of Israel. Who was supposed to receive the outgoing benefits of the worship of God in the world? It was the Gentiles. It was the nations. We see in verse 17, Jesus himself says they're not being served by these practices. For the temple was not meant to focus on being kind of a faithless international stock exchange. It was meant to be an international place of prayer for the Gentiles, for the nations, for people to come to God. And what moved Jesus was that when he pointed this out, When he pointed this out to Israel and her leaders, that they'd use the temple for their religious rites and practice and for their own security, rather than for the peace and place of grace of faith in God, where they've been so busy with everything but the heartfelt worship with God, they've gone on about the gods, they've devoted their time, their talents and treasure, their hearts are living for something else than God. When Jesus points that out, you would expect them to go, thank you. Thank you for that conviction of our wrong. We will repent and turn from that. What do they do? You can test this. Is someone born again? Are they a real believer? Can you ever correct, rebuke, teach, train? Could you ever do that for yourself? If the reaction is, I don't want that. I don't want to receive that. You're looking at a fruitless tree. The roots are not born down into the soil of belief and faith in God himself. So in this moment, the chief priests and the scribes again show their heart problem from their response. Because instead of going, oh yeah, we should change. We've just been convicted of this. What do they do? Let's destroy him. I've said it before and I'll say it again to this church. Can you imagine someone comes along, heals all our diseases, cleans us of all uncleanliness, says to the people who are unlovely, unwelcomed, tarnished by every tormenting problem of sin and says to them, come, come, come. Can you imagine that person turning up in our society? And then can you imagine what would be our response? It would be to go to him and love him. What's their response? Let's kill him. Let's kill him. They don't want him as their God and King. And what we see going on in this whole episode is it's a fig sandwich. We see in verse 20, Jesus and his disciples spend the night out of the city and they come back in the morning in verse 20. and they see the fig tree withered away to its roots. Peter saw the fig tree withered away and he remembered. Now why is that written there? Because we remember Mark's main source is Peter. Mark gets his information from Peter. Peter was there. Peter remembered. And Peter also remembered Jesus' teaching. Jesus is teaching them and us. In this sandwich, what the fig tree is all about, it's all about the temple on that mountain and what it means for our worship. In the Old Testament, God looked for fruit in people's lives. He didn't look for their ceremonies. He really particularly didn't like it when they worshiped him with their lips, but their hearts were far from him. Hosea 9 verse 10, like grapes in the wilderness, I found Israel. Like the first fruit on the fig tree in its first season, I saw your fathers. And now Jesus sees their descendants. He sees leaves that would indicate fruit, but he finds fruitlessness. And what does it show? Their rank, writ large, hypocrisy. Mark has this literary device, scholars call it a Marken sandwich. Sounds tasty, it is. What happens in Mark, you can see this again and again. You may have seen it in your small group, reforming group, but you'll see Mark has a supporting idea in one paragraph, and then a main idea, and then supporting idea, and both supporting ideas are the bread, and the bit in the middle, that's the meat. And here we see, supporting idea, Jesus curses a fig tree. Last supporting idea is we see the fig tree is withered. Because the meat in the middle, the main point is this. This is the end point for anyone who does not have their heart for God. They wither. Your life withers. It ought to flourish, but it withers. The cursing of the fig tree signifies the judgment on fruitless people, fruitless Israel, and anyone who does not live for Jesus as Lord. Because people can turn away from Jesus and even look like they're following Jesus, can't they? We could do just what Israel does. We could do all the ritualism and legalism and look good and say the right words. You could even call yourself a fruitless orchard tree. By the way, what is a fruitless orchard tree? What do you call that? An ornament. A fruitless orchard tree is an ornament and you can't eat ornaments. They're useless. They look good, but they will not feed you. It will not feed your faith to live your life as an ornament. And so Jesus says, away with it. Jesus sees leaves that would indicate fruit, but it shows the hypocrisy. Jesus has seen it, he's come to clean house. Jeremiah 7 verse 11, has this house which is called by my name become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the Lord. Jeremiah 7 is fulfilled when Jesus walks into that temple, he says, I walked in, I saw it with my own truly human, truly God eyes, I saw it. Jesus has seen it, he has come to clean house. What does that mean for us, reforming? It means for us, we most of all need to make sure where our faith is. Have faith. Verse 22, Jesus answered them, have faith in God. Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, be taken up and thrown into the sea and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Now, friends, look at those words. There have been many times those words have been way misapplied. I have heard people, lazy preachers. It is lazy preaching to twist this into, if you have enough faith, anything can happen. Friends, this is not Disneyland. This is not wish upon a star and your dreams will come true. That's not what that verse is saying. Have whatever you want, as long as you pray for it, whatever you want, we treat God like he's a vending machine. If he doesn't give me what I want, I get frustrated with God and I'm allowed to do that and go and turn some tables. This is not what this is about. It is lazy preaching. It is false teaching to say that if things don't happen your way because you prayed it, you don't have enough faith. That is appalling. And it's a misapplication of this passage. And you can see why it's misapplication, not just because I said so, but because of the passage itself. Have a look. There's a really small word that makes all the difference in this passage. Do you see it? It's in verse 23. Jesus says, with particularity, He says, particularly, in verse 23, truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, Jesus is not telling you, go and look at the mountains in your life and pray them out of your life, and it will happen for you. He's talking about not the mountains generally. Where is Jesus standing where he says this? He's standing on a mountain, the Temple Mount. He's standing on Mount Zion, Jerusalem, and he is saying, I tell you about this mountain. Because what is the thing that's between God's people and God himself is that very mountain, is this false teaching, this false religion, this religiosity, ceremonialism, and ritualism, and legalism, and just moralism. And he says, you need to pray that out of your life. Pray this mountain out of your life, and it will happen for you. You will have relationship with God. This mountain. The wonderful thing that we'll see in Mark's gospel is that as people pray that, it actually happens. In chapter 13, Jesus gives a prophecy about the destruction of the temple, the removal of that mountain. And we know that comes true in the year 70 AD. In the year 70 AD, that mountain is removed. The second temple, which they're standing next to, That second temple is destroyed in 70 AD and it's in Mark 13. The temple mount thrown into the sea teaches us to avoid the judgment to come by entering into the king's kingdom by faith in him. That's how we get a life that is fruitful. Which then makes total sense of verse 24 following, Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also, as in heaven, may forgive you your trespasses. You can now see what Jesus is showing us, can't you? Verse 24 is about dependent prayer, which we have seen some, by their desperateness, go to Jesus and talk to him like that. We've seen this again and again. The desperate come to Jesus in dependent prayer. And what are they coming for? Are they coming for whatever they want? You know, the mansions in their life to be given to them. They want two cars, maybe three. No, they're coming to Jesus. What do they want? They want relationship with God. They want what they most need. Jesus is showing us that left to ourselves, it's impossible to get that without coming this way by faith in Him. And by faith in Jesus, He will deliver you. He will move that mountain of religiosity so that you can have a real relationship with Him. You can be forgiven, and it'll change your relationships to be fruitful in forgiving others. It means that our prayers in public and private are not just ticking a list or telling someone we're praying this to save face. We pray because He works powerfully according to His will with hearts full of faith and we will flourish. We will be fruitful. And we'll do that by turning to trust in Him with all our heart in God the King and Jesus the Christ. Notice when the crowd meet Jesus on the road to Jerusalem, what do they call out? We saw it in the passage. What do they call out? What is their prayer? Is their prayer, Jesus, give me a better job. Jesus, give me more wealth. Jesus, give me more health. Jesus, give me whatever I ask for. What is their prayer? Of all the things they could cry out for, what do they want? They cry out, save us, we pray. That's the content Jesus is praying about. We're all like those people, those disciples. We need to see that He comes to clean us up. By being the King that He more than overturns tables, He overturned death. He overturned sin. His compassion moves Him to go to the cross so that we can call out, save us, we pray, reforming. As we finish, we need to see something amazing today. Answered prayer. I think it's so tempting for us to look at prayer and even praying together is just, I just got to do this. We look at it and we treat it like a ritual. We treat asking us, you know, can I pray for you? And I hope we do. If we do actually ask that, but we kind of just forget and neglect it. We, we have an opportunity to see this is how to be fruitful is be prayerfully dependent with all our affections for Christ on him. and reforming, we've seen amazing answered prayer today. For such a long time, we've been praying for the Lord to save the lost. We've loved the lost, but for such a long time, we've been asking the Lord to save people. And we've been praying for this at our prayer services every week. Every week we've been praying for the lost. And today we saw Ash, saved by grace, professing faith in the Lord Jesus. reforming, let's keep praying like that. Let's ask the Lord to do it again. Would you pray with me now? Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, Thank you for Jesus' word to us. As forgiven people we pray that we would flourish by faith in Jesus. We pray that all creatures of our God and King Jesus would come to him by faith too and join him with Jesus and become part of his church. Save us we pray. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.