What Happened on This Day in Easter Week - Monday

[0:00] What happened on this day in Easter week? Monday, Mark 11, 15-18 They came to Jerusalem, and he went into the temple and began to throw out those buying and selling.

[0:17] He overturned the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves, and would not permit anyone to carry goods through the temple. And he was teaching them, It is not written, My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations, but you have made it a den of robbers.

[0:36] The chief priests and the scribes heard it and started looking for a way to kill him, for they were afraid of him, because the whole crowd was astonished by his teaching.

[0:47] This is God's word, and it tells us what happened on Monday. Why? Jesus entering one of the most controversial locations on earth, the temple precinct in Jerusalem.

[0:58] And he's angry with what he finds there. Not an irrational, impulsive anger, but a deep, righteous, godly anger. Why, though? What is he so angry about?

[1:10] Some think it's because the money changers and animal sellers were overcharging the people. But that's not what the text tells us. Jesus wasn't angry because of the business they were conducting.

[1:22] He's angry because of where they were conducting it. The temple in Jerusalem was a very special place, meant for a very special purpose. This was the meeting place of God and humans on earth, where people could connect with God like nowhere else on earth.

[1:38] That's what Jesus means when he says that this was meant to be a house of prayer for all nations. And the reason why it was this place, especially, is that it was here that the sacrifices were offered that were acceptable to God, that made atonement for the sins of people.

[2:00] But it was no longer doing its job in Jesus' day. It wasn't being a place where the nations could find God. Rather, it was being used for other, more expedient purposes.

[2:13] The Israel of Jesus' day had forgotten their job. They'd forgotten that they were meant to be the meeting place between God and the rest of the world.

[2:24] And so, here, Jesus judges the temple, using the example of a fruitless fig tree, declaring in verse 14, May you never produce fruit again.

[2:37] And this is a shocking declaration. If the temple in Jerusalem is declared unfit for purpose, then where now can the nations meet with God?

[2:48] Where will the acceptable sacrifices for sin happen? Later, Jesus says this temple will be destroyed, but a new one will be raised in its place.

[3:01] A new meeting place between God and humanity, where true atonement for sins can be found. And that new temple would be His body, when it is put on the cross on Friday, to make atonement for the sins of His people.

[3:19] Jesus Christ and those who gather around Him in faith in every age are now the meeting place of God and humanity, the new temple.

[3:30] The body of Christ today, the church wherever it finds itself, is now the one place where people of every nation can find real, acceptable atonement for sins in hearing and believing the gospel of Jesus Christ.

[3:46] Paul writes in 1 Corinthians, Don't you know that you are now God's temple? If you are a believer, have you considered that you, as a member of that church, are now the meeting place between God and the people around you?

[4:04] So think, in what way this week will you be a means for the people around you, the people that God has put in your life, to experience and to know Him? There are many ways you can do that, but one easy way is to invite them to church this Friday, Good Friday, as we meet to declare and celebrate the good news of how Jesus brought real atonement to bring sinners to God.

[4:33] God bless you.