A brief overview for Sunday School teachers and Bible study leaders, of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible lesson of Mark 11:15-25, “Clears,” for Sunday, October 29, 2023. A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:

INTRO ??? You could show some assorted art representing Jesus like these that I got from the internet. (I would get a variety) Ask: which of these do you like best/feels portrays Him the best, and why?     Then say: Often the “picture” we have in our minds of Jesus is not accurate — as we will see in our passage for today from Mark 11, as Jesus goes to the Temple! 

OR as another option for the introduction you could ASK: ???What was the last thing that you/someone you saw got really mad about, and why???

(EX: A couple of weeks ago I was angry about the decision made of a video replay at a college football game, which to me was so clearly one way — but they ruled it another. I was like, why do they bother doing these replays if they can’t see what is clearly there? It is very frustrating! Of course, in the big picture of life, that’s really not something I should be angry about! There are, however injustices in life that we should be angry about — we’ll talk about some of those later …)

Then I would share how in today’s lesson Jesus gets angry about what was going on in the Temple in Jerusalem — let’s make sure we don’t do the same kinds of things ourselves!

CONTEXT

Jesus has now come to Jerusalem in the Triumphal Entry (11:1-10) but He is traveling back and forth from Bethany, where He is staying at night (as we saw in our study of John). This will be the fateful last week of His life and mission here on Earth.  Verse 12 says “On the next day, when they had left Bethany, He became hungry. Verse 13 says He saw a fig tree, and went to get some fruit from it, but there was nothing. And in :14 He cursed the tree, saying, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And it says, “His disciples were listening.” We will come back to “the rest of the story” of that in our last point today. But our focus passage for today picks up with Jesus and the disciples going back to Jerusalem, to the Temple.

OUTLINE

I.  The Radical Action  (:15-16)

II.  The Misplaced Purpose  (:17-18)

III.  The Lessons of the Fig Tree  (:19-25)

I.  The Radical Action  (:15-16)

A couple of weeks ago we saw how Jesus was NOT the kind of Messiah that Peter and many of His disciples anticipated. His prophecy of His crucifixion totally shattered their image of what the Messiah would be like.

Today’s event — Jesus in the Temple — also shatters the image that many people TODAY have of Him! 

(If you don’t use the “pictures of Jesus” in the introduction, you might use them here)

??? How do people today picture Jesus???

Just kind of a nice guy; with a benign smile; wouldn’t harm a fly. 

Summed up in the old hymn:

Gentle Jesus, meek and mild,

look upon a little child,

pity my simplicity,

suffer me to come to thee.

“Gentle Jesus, meek and mild” — but that gets all shot out of the water here, right? This is not “gentle Jesus meek and mild” — it says He “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. (:16) And He would not permit anyone to carry merchandise through the Temple.”

This was a pretty radical act; a strong act! One might think He could have been arrested for violent behavior!

WHY would Jesus do this? It turns out He had a good reason:

The Jewish Temple was the place where the people were to make sacrifices, and offer their prayers to God. 

(I would get a MAP from the internet/other source that you could show your class at this point)

— Point out the layout of the Temple

— the inner court/holy of holies/court of the women

— then the COURT OF THE GENTILES — which is where this action by Jesus took place. The Court of the Gentiles was not “inside” the Temple, but surrounded it; it was the furthest the Gentiles could go to worship God; they were prohibited to enter in. So this was the only place they could worship. THIS IS AN IMPORTANT POINT!

But what had happened here, in the only place the Gentiles could worship?  They had set up all this commerce. And it was NOT a “godly commerce” either!

People were supposed to bring sacrifices and offerings to the Temple, but a couple of things made it difficult:

— it was hard to bring a lamb, for example, all the way from Northern Israel to Jerusalem to the Temple, so instead of bringing an animal, they would just bring the money, and buy the animal when you got to the Temple.

— Also: the offerings they were to bring were NOT to be in Roman money, but the temple shekel, which was not common elsewhere in the land. So again when they got to Jerusalem, they would exchange the money.

??? You might ask??? “Has anyone been to a foreign country, and seen the money exchange booths set up all over the airport?”  They always make a profit on it, don’t they? (Once on a mission trip in a foreign country, our host told us: DO NOT exchange your money here;They will “rip you off”!  

THAT is what was happening here: they had all these booths set up to sell animals, and exchange money, for exorbitant exchange rates, so people were being cheated — in the very Temple of God! 

And not only that, as we just saw: THIS WAS THE ONLY PLACE THE GENTILES COULD WORSHIP! And it had been taken over by these unscrupulous traders. 

— Also :15 mentions “the seats of those who were selling doves” — two doves was the offering that poor women were to bring to be purified — Mary herself offered this after Jesus was born, Luke 2:24 says (Leviticus 5:11 says poor people can bring two doves). So again, it was the poor and vulnerable who were being taken advantage of, and in the very Temple of God Himself, who loves the poor and helpless and outcast. 

THIS is why Jesus expressed this righteous anger. 

??? What might be an example of righteous anger today???

(— The atrocities of the attack on Israel.

— The continued abortion of babies in our country

— The horrific mutilation of 8-year-old children under the auspices of “gender choice.”

There are things that it is RIGHT to be angry about. There IS such a thing as “righteous anger.”

(The problem is, most often that is NOT what we humans have!)

We are more like Jonah, who lost his “shade plant” in Jonah 4, and the Lord asked him, “Do you have good reason to be angry?” And he said, “I have good reason to be angry, even to death.” (:9)  Well, no he didn’t. He was angry about something that made HIM uncomfortable.

Righteous anger is when someone does something unrighteous or unfair  to someone ELSE, not just when they make YOU “uncomfortable”! There is a big difference.)

In this case, Jesus was righteously angry because of the affront to His Father’s house — AND because of all the Gentiles and other people who were not being reached or ministered to there.  Later they would slap Jesus personally in the face, and spit on Him, and crucify Him — “yet He did not open His mouth” (Isaiah 53). But against the corruption in His Father’s house, and the stumbling block this was to all the Gentiles, etc., Jesus was righteously angry. 

Applying this, there are things that we should not be angry about today: when someone insults us, or doesn’t recognize us, or agree with us. We are to be like Jesus, and “do not open our mouth.”    But also like Jesus, there ARE things that we should be angry about — evil and injustice that is done to others; and when profit and traditions crowd people out of God’s church — that is “righteous anger”!

A discussion question that might be interesting for your group — and which could help you all think of some ways to apply this passage — might be:  ??? What are some things that Jesus might be righteously angry with churches about TODAY???

(Some answers could include:

— loving our traditions more than reaching and caring for people

— allowing abuse of children (or adults)

— churches caring only for their own comfort, rather than reaching/ministering to others

II.  The Misplaced Purpose  (:17)

:17 “And He began to teach and say to them” — this is important; Jesus didn’t just “throw a tantrum.” It says He began to TEACH them. Here is WHY this was so wrong. Jesus always looked to instruct His disciples through life events — whether it was in the Temple, or looking at birds or flowers or a grapevine (or a fig tree, as we will see!) Here He instructs them about what was so wrong in the Temple.

He said 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.”

Several things here:

— He began “It is written.” Jesus didn’t just make things up as He went along. He was all about the word of God. Everything was based on scripture, as OUR doctrine and practice should be too!

— “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations” is a quote from Isaiah 56:7.  Speaking of foreigners, God says there “Even those I will bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer … For My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.”

Here God gave His people the vision: His house was to be for EVERYONE. But here the Gentiles were, not only relegated to a place outside the inner walls of the Temple, but even THAT place was full of merchandise and dishonest business practices! 

??? What does this teach US about God’s goal for His places of worship???

(— That He wants PRAYER to be a priority in His house. Too often it is an “afterthought” instead of a priority. How much time do we really spend praying in His house?!)

— That they are for people of ALL nations. There should be no racial prejudice in the house of the Lord. 

Someone has said that the most racially segregated hour in America is the hour of worship on Sunday morning. It ought not to be that way. His house of worship is for ALL the peoples!

— This also says something about our MISSION. We are to reach ALL NATIONS with the gospel. This is what Jesus commanded us in Matthew 28:18-20, “Go therefore and make disciples of ALL the nations …”

We can’t be content to minister in our our own area. We need to be part of reaching the nations.

This may be a good place to put a “bug in the ear” of your class about our Southern Baptist missions. SBC has 3800 missionaries with our IMB, reaching 185 nations around the world. We do this through our Cooperative Program, and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering (and our church’s “Acts 1:8 Offering”)

Your church may also have some other specific mission partnership(s); if so, take some time to talk about those, and how your members can be involved in reaching the nations whom the Lord wants in His house of worship.

??? You might also ask your group: ??? Is there someone of another race or background, that maybe you have not considered inviting to church, that God might have you begin to pray for, and invite them. His house of worship is for “all the nations.” 

Then in :18 we see he Religious Reaction :18 “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.”

??? WHY do you think they sought to destroy Him for this???

(Doesn’t say here, but does in John 11:48, after He raised Lazarus from the dead, they said, “”If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both OUR PLACE and our nation.”

— Don’t want to lose “their place,” authority, power, position. People in power don’t want to lose it. Even at the cost of truth and right.

— Also of course there were also deep-seated prejudices vs the Gentiles. So they began to plan to destroy Jesus.

III.  The Lessons of the Fig Tree  (:19-15)

:19 reminds us that “When evening came, they would go out of the city.” (Going to Bethany, as we have seen)

:20 says “As they were passing by in the morning (coming back to Jerusalem from Bethany) they saw the fig tree withered from the roots up.

In :21 Peter says, “Rabbi, look, the fig tree which You cursed has withered.”

All this refers to Jesus’ cursing the fig tree, which we referred to in the CONTEXT in the introduction.

What is the point of this? 

It is NOT that Jesus “lost His temper”, either with the fig tree, or in the temple. Rather there are some lessons from this incident of the fig tree:

— For one, many believe the fig tree represents God’s people, Israel. He looked for fruit from them, of representing Him in the world, and reaching out to “all the nations” like Isaiah prophesied — but they didn’t do it. So He cursed them. Judgment was coming upon them. And it DID — in 70 A.D. the Romans would come and destroy Jerusalem, and level the Temple to the ground, and the Jews would be scattered for almost 2000 years. 

Is there also an application for US here? Absolutely! If we as a CHURCH do not reach out, to try to lead people to Christ, and reach out the nations of the world on mission, then we may similarly experience His discipline or judgment. How many churches have “shriveled up and died” because they have neglected their mission? A LOT!  So this is a challenge to us today: don’t neglect the mission Jesus gave us. Let’s reach out; let’s be on mission. 

(And again, this would be a great place to talk about specific outreach/mission opportunities that your church has. Bring signup sheets/contact information. Don’t just say, “Let’s do something for outreach/missions;” give your group some specific things they can sign up for/do to respond to this. 

— We passed around a Trunk or Treat outreach signup in our class for the last couple of weeks; we are having a Port Ministry speaker in our church the Sunday after this, where we will encourage our members to sign up. We will give out cards for our group to invite people to our Christmas program the first week of December, etc. You share the things YOU have going, and give your group some specific ways to be involved in outreach/mission. Let’s not a fig tree that bears no fruit in reaching out!

— Then Jesus also applies this incident in another way:

After Peter marvels at how the fig tree withered, Jesus says in :22, “Have faith in God (:23) 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.

So Jesus makes this lesson specifically about FAITH, and PRAYER. He says in :24, “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. 

So this is a great lesson on praying in faith. Jesus is saying to Peter, you are amazed because this fig tree withered when I said that to it? YOU TOO can do amazing things, if you will pray and believe. 

NOW, this does NOT mean that we can just “pick out whatever we want to do” and that it will happen. It wasn’t God’s will, for example, for them to speak to the Mount of Olives and throw it into the sea.

But it IS God’s will for us to be able to pray about big things, that might look like “mountains,” and that He will move them for us in prayer:

For example, think of the “mountain” of our sin! How many people are just weighed down by the thought of all their sins: every thought, every word, every deed, everything left undone … it can be a grievous burden to carry. 

In John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, Pilgrim starts his journey to the Celestial City with a great burden on his back — that’s a picture of the great burden of sin we bear, the conviction of our sin. It’s like trying to carry a “mountain”, in a sense. 

But if we will pray, and ask the Lord to forgive us, and believe that what Jesus did on the cross will save us, that “mountain” of sin and guilt will be taken away and cast into the depth of the sea! (Micah 7:19 says “Yes, You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea”!)  The mountain of our sins, cast into the sea, if we pray and believe!

SHARE THE GOSPEL HERE: someone in your class may be under the weight of a “mountain” of sin today; tell them how it can be removed by a prayer of faith in Jesus!

But this also is true of many other things besides salvation.

God can do amazing things in prayer. 

EX: you/your group might take some time here to share some instances of things you’ve prayed for to happen, that God did, that were considered impossible, humanly speaking, but that God did through prayer.

(EX: of Ariel, little 3-year-old friend of our grandkids, they told the mom not to expect her live past Saturday night. We are all praying, and she is still alive, and doing better. 

HOW MANY testimonies are there like this? You/your group can share many — use this as a time to encourage/build up each other’s faith with reports of what God has done.)

But, someone might say, NOT ALL prayers are answered.

And that is true. But there are some reasons for this. Several reasons for unanswered prayer are mentioned in this passage:

— Jesus says in :24 “pray and ask” — too many times, we really don’t pray. We “think about it;” we worry; but don’t really pray. 

Make sure you really make it a matter of prayer.

— Again, He said “believe that you have received them” — do you really have faith, or are you just “going through the motions” of prayer. If you have doubts, pray the prayer of the father we looked at a couple of weeks ago in Mark 9:24 “I believe, help my unbelief.”

— There is another hindrance to answered prayer that Jesus mentions here: UNFORGIVENESS!  He says in :25,

“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. (:26) But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your transgressions.”

Here Jesus points out one the biggest causes of unanswered prayer: our lack of forgiveness of others. Jesus says forgive, so that YOUR transgressions will be forgiven.

NOW: I would point out that I don’t believe Jesus is talking about the forgiveness of salvation here. This same verse is found right after His Model Prayer in Matthew 6:14-15. The Model Prayer is an outline for daily prayer which Jesus gave His disciples. In it, we are praying for the forgiveness of our daily transgressions, the sins of the day. And afterwards, Jesus tells them, if you don’t forgive the transgressions of other people against you, then YOUR transgressions (those daily transgressions that you were just praying about) are not going to be forgiven. That doesn’t mean that you are “lost,” but rather that your daily sins will continue to “cloud” your relationship with God like a “fog,” keeping you from clear fellowship with Him — and that is why He mentions this here in Mark 11 — because one of the biggest reasons for unanswered prayer is that we have not forgiven others — we have bitterness and unforgiveness towards someone — so OUR daily sins are still “clouding” our relationship with God, and our prayers are going to be hindered.

Which reminds us of the importance of forgiving others.

In his 1980 book, The Angry Christian, Bert Ghezzi wrote:  “Resentment is like a poison we carry around inside us with the hope that when we get the chance we can deposit it where it will harm another who has injured us. The fact is that we carry this poison at extreme risk to ourselves.”

That quote has been adapted to say, “Being resentful against someone is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die” — and it has been attributed to everyone from Buddha to Nelson Mandela to St. Augustine. But the point is a good one: when you don’t forgive someone, the person you hurt most is YOURSELF!  And Jesus says here that when you stand praying, you need to forgive — if you don’t, YOUR sins will not be forgiven, and God is not going to hear and answer your prayers.

I would challenge my group:  Is there anyone against whom you are harboring resentment; anyone you’ve said “I can’t forgive them”?  If so, you need to forgive them TODAY. Right now. YOUR own spiritual health — and the answer to your prayers — depends upon it!  

We see in this passage that Jesus cleared the Temple in Jerusalem of things that were hindering prayer — in the same way, some of US as “the temple of the Holy Spirit” have some attitudes and practices that are keeping us from effective prayer. And one of the most important that we need to clean out, is unforgiveness, bitterness, holding a grudge against others. Your prayers are going to continue to be hindered, until you ask Jesus to help you clean that out of your life. Do it today!

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