For verses 12-14 i will talk about those next time.
In the meanwhile we will discuss the cleansing of the temple.
"And they came to Jerusalem. And He entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and He overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. And He would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple." Mark 11:15-16
Background:
THE PASSOVER
It was holiday season for the Jews, time had arrived for the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This seven-day Jewish holiday celebrates the time in the book of Exodus when the LORD passed over Israel. Preceding the feast is what is known as The Passover (Hebrew, Pesahk), celebrated on the 14th day of Nissan (Or Abib; the first month of the Jewish calender, spring-time in the northern hemisphere). This was a required holiday for all Jews, and they were not to come empty handed (Exodus 23).
"You shall say, 'It is the sacrifice of the LORD's Passover, for He passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when He struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.'" Exodus 12:27
On the days leading up to Passover thousands, if not millions of Jews would migrate or traveled from where they were living to make a sacrifice and celebrate the festivities together. The historian, Josephus, estimated this number of people to be 2,700,200 during his lifetime (War of the Jews; B6,Ch9,P3).
Once a year the Israelites were to bring a tenth of all their produce from the fields, new wine and oil, and firstborn of livestock, if they had to much to carry or the distance were too great they were allowed to sell their goods in exchange for silver, then when they arrived in Jerusalem they could buy whatever they wanted with that money and celebrate it as to the Lord. (Deut. 14:22-29)
THE MONEY CHANGERS
"Each one who is numbered in the census shall give this: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary, half a shekel as an offering to the LORD." Exodus 30:13
The coin of the known civilized world (Roman world) was at the time (211BC-275AD)(WIKI) the Denarius, a small silver coin weighing 4.5 pounds (originally). Because this coin had the images of Roman Emperors, or false gods of worship, they were unacceptable to the Jews as for temple use. According to Bible-History.com (among other websites), the silver shekel (about 2/5 ounce or 11 grams) "designed in Tyre and minted there and in Jerusalem, was acceptable at the Temple to pay that tax, but coins from other locations were not."
THOSE WHO SOLD PIGEONS
In the biography of Luke, the author records for us a record of what Joseph and Mary did during the early years of Jesus unique to his gospel.
"When the time of their purification according to the Law of Moses had been completed, Joseph and Mary took Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, "Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord" Ex. 13), and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: "a pair of doves or two young pigeons (Lev. 12)." Luke 2:22-24
After giving birth, the woman was unclean for a set time, after that time she was to sacrifice a lamb and a pigeon (or dove) to be made ceremonially clean again. If she could not afford a lamb, then two doves or two pigeons would be acceptable. Within the old testament (see Leviticus) we read this concept of being ceremonially unclean, either by means of child birth, touching a dead body, or eating unclean foods (to name a few). If unclean, then participation in temple activities or Jewish festivals was not allowed (Example: Numbers 9)
THE SCENE:
With the background covered lets take another look at what went down.
Millions of people are traveling from great distances to participate in one of the three required national holidays. For many, it has been a year since their last arrival in Jerusalem. During this time away many things have happened, some of which were the deaths of old family members and the births of new, doubtless is this that sins had been committed and atonement was needed. Because of the distance some would travel it is likely that for the first time many women would be offering their sacrifices to remove uncleanliness to participate in the festivities. This would also be the opportunity for men to pay their taxes as well as families to add their sons to the census of Israel.
The money-changers, men who would exchange the denarius or other coins for a currency accepted by the temple. With so many people in Jerusalem, and so great a need for coin-exchange, the likelihood of dishonest scales being used would be high. This would be a season for untrustworthy people to take advantage of others and rake in an extra sum for themselves. Those who recognize the need for small birds at this time of sacrifice could also take advantage and sell these birds for inflated prices.
Proverbs reminds us, that dishonest scales are an abomination to the LORD (prov. 11:1). God is Truth. It is His nature that He is Honest and therefore cannot lie (Num 23:19, Titus 1:2, Heb 6:18). Jesus, being God in the flesh, came to us full of grace and full of truth (John1:14, John 14:6), representing God to us here on earth (col 1:19). For Jesus, witnessing His temple being desecrated from the inside by dishonesty and religious practices stemming from hearts that completely missed the point, was outraged and showed His righteous indignation by clearing the temple of the idolatry.
APPLICATION:
GOD IS JEALOUS FOR YOU. "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body. (1 Cor 6:19-20)" And if Jesus would react the way He did for a lifeless temple that He knew would be destroyed in 70 AD (mark 13:2), then how much more will He react for a temple built for eternity? Creation, Divine Patience, Redemptive History, The Triumphal Entry, The Cross, Burial And Resurrection, in one way it is all to and for the glory of God, but His glory is accomplished through His love displayed to us, through His mercy given to us, through His blood poured out for us, its all for us! That we should take part in giving Him all glory and honor and praise.
So I want to ask myself this morning, Am I glorifying God with my body? or does He need to clear His temple?
What dishonesty is in my temple?
What bitterness am i holding onto not forgiving my neighbor?
Am I being self-righteous towards those who are unsaved?
Am I judging myself to be better then others?
Jesus, I feel honored that you consider me Your temple and I only ask that you reveal to me the areas that need a clearing away in my life. Then I prey for the strength and wisdom to take my part in holiness, living for the glory and honor and praise of Your Holy name. Amen.
WIKI ~ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denarius
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Friday, October 22, 2010
109. A Walk With Jesus (Triumphal Entry)
Now when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to them, "Go into the village in front of you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, 'Why are you doing this?' say, 'The Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately.'" Mark 11:1-2
I dont want to repeat everything my John Mark had to say on this subject, you can listen to a much better message on this provided by Solid Rock at AJesusChurch.org
When an event is recorded in all four gospels it has a sort of rarity to it, this is one of those events. All four writers found this event marking the beginning of passion week to be of significant importance. According to Borg and Crossan's book, The Last Week, there were two processions that occured on the same day. From the west came the procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate, representing Rome with the power of the empire. Riding on a white horse, a symbol of military strength and conquer and his army that followed. Pilate was representing the power of the empire.
From the East, from the city of Jericho enters Jesus. In the words of the minor prophet Zechariah, "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey." As Jesus entered, those who were expecting the Messiah were expecting a king. Many gathered palm branches and began to wave them in the air and they paved the road before Him with the robes off their own backs, a sign of commoration to the King as seen elsewhere (2 kings 9:13). And the people cried, "Hosanna, blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!" Hosanna, from Psalm 118:25-29, means "save now." Their Messiah had arrived.
The hope was not the fogiveness of sins and the salvation from the righteous wrath of God against sin, but from the tyranny of Rome and their oppressors. Similar to our situation in Irag, I would not be at all happy having another country in my city telling me what to do, even the very pressence of foreign soldiers would be in reality, oppressive. And here comes Jesus, fulfilling prophecy, performing miracles, claiming to be the Messiah, unfortunately the Jews were unaware of His purpose and the necessity of His death.
Two worlds,
Pilate came from the West, Jesus from the East. Pilate on a horse, Jesus on a donkey. Pilate came with a show of force, Jesus in humility (a). Pilate came in power, Jesus came in peace. Pilate was from this world, Jesus was not of the world (b). Pilate came in oppression, Jesus came with a choice...
And the choice is this, Who will you side with? Are you going to be a part of this world, with the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (c)? Will you identify with the system and the emptiness it has to offer, or will you identify with Christ? but more importantly than any of these, will you put your trust in Him for the salvation of your soul? or will you deny Him as the Only God? There are not many gods, we are not god(s), the universe is not a god, there is but one and there is salvation in none other but Jesus Christ, the consequences of rejection are forever, will you accept the One who died in your place, or reject Him and continue down your path of destruction, He loves you - enough to had died for you - but the choice is yours.
Triumphal Entry in the Bible,
Matthew 21:1; Mark 11:1; Luke 19:28; John 12:12.
(a) Matt 11:29 (b) John 8:23 (c) 1 John 2:16
I dont want to repeat everything my John Mark had to say on this subject, you can listen to a much better message on this provided by Solid Rock at AJesusChurch.org
When an event is recorded in all four gospels it has a sort of rarity to it, this is one of those events. All four writers found this event marking the beginning of passion week to be of significant importance. According to Borg and Crossan's book, The Last Week, there were two processions that occured on the same day. From the west came the procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate, representing Rome with the power of the empire. Riding on a white horse, a symbol of military strength and conquer and his army that followed. Pilate was representing the power of the empire.
From the East, from the city of Jericho enters Jesus. In the words of the minor prophet Zechariah, "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey." As Jesus entered, those who were expecting the Messiah were expecting a king. Many gathered palm branches and began to wave them in the air and they paved the road before Him with the robes off their own backs, a sign of commoration to the King as seen elsewhere (2 kings 9:13). And the people cried, "Hosanna, blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!" Hosanna, from Psalm 118:25-29, means "save now." Their Messiah had arrived.
The hope was not the fogiveness of sins and the salvation from the righteous wrath of God against sin, but from the tyranny of Rome and their oppressors. Similar to our situation in Irag, I would not be at all happy having another country in my city telling me what to do, even the very pressence of foreign soldiers would be in reality, oppressive. And here comes Jesus, fulfilling prophecy, performing miracles, claiming to be the Messiah, unfortunately the Jews were unaware of His purpose and the necessity of His death.
Two worlds,
Pilate came from the West, Jesus from the East. Pilate on a horse, Jesus on a donkey. Pilate came with a show of force, Jesus in humility (a). Pilate came in power, Jesus came in peace. Pilate was from this world, Jesus was not of the world (b). Pilate came in oppression, Jesus came with a choice...
And the choice is this, Who will you side with? Are you going to be a part of this world, with the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (c)? Will you identify with the system and the emptiness it has to offer, or will you identify with Christ? but more importantly than any of these, will you put your trust in Him for the salvation of your soul? or will you deny Him as the Only God? There are not many gods, we are not god(s), the universe is not a god, there is but one and there is salvation in none other but Jesus Christ, the consequences of rejection are forever, will you accept the One who died in your place, or reject Him and continue down your path of destruction, He loves you - enough to had died for you - but the choice is yours.
Triumphal Entry in the Bible,
Matthew 21:1; Mark 11:1; Luke 19:28; John 12:12.
(a) Matt 11:29 (b) John 8:23 (c) 1 John 2:16
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
108. A Walk With Jesus (Have mercy on me)
The story of the blind men is recorded in the end of Mark 10, Luke 18 and Matthew 20. Matthew is the only author to record there being two blind men, while Luke and Mark record only one. The discrepancy here between the three authors is not the first or only of its kind, revealing that it is NOT in error but a part of the writers purpose. Other examples occur in the story of the demon possessed man, Mathew(8) records two, while once again mark(5) and Luke(8) only record one. If there were two then there was certainly one, and mark and Luke chose to focus on the one, perhaps he was the loudest or more determined of the two.
The story continues with the man (men) crying out, the Greek word used here is kékraga, this is an onomatopoeia imitating the horse cry of a raven. To cry out, entreat.
he began to cry out and say, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" vs 47
The best explanation i can find for the title "Son of David" comes from Jeremiah 23:5 when the prophet declares, "Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land."
The prophets saw the future like peaks of mountains in the distance, describing what they saw and were told, they were unaware of the valleys in between, so here is a prophecy concerning the coming Messiah. Many Jews anticipated the arrival and many even thought it was Jesus Himself as we will see in the next chapter, Jesus claimed to be the Messiah (John 10:24-33) and His disciples believed it also (Mark 8:29), back to the story.
And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" vs 48
How would the church respond to a prostitute coming in to church dressed up in her work clothes, crying out, "Jesus have mercy on me!" Or what if a drunk stumbled in 10 min sober, interrupting service with, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" how would we respond?
Sadly i confess that i would be a little bit uncomfortable. I dont know if i would know what to do or how to respond at the moment. i would like to say that i would walk up to him and throw my arms around him telling him about the mercy that Jesus has for him. Have we become all too comfortable with where we are in our life? Sometimes i think i know enough biblical truth to get me in trouble, to rely on the doctrine and not the God, to have my faith in faith and not in Jesus. When life is smooth and i have the necessities i tend to lean away from the bible and sermons and rely on my own strength, creating a circular life of placing Jesus at the center, then myself, and when i screw up i place Jesus back on the throne where he belongs. What would it be like if I saw my sin for what it was; a lie, deception, a factor that hinders my relationship with God, an offense to God, a robber of my peace and joy, a spiritual inhibitor that prevents any true growth, a destroyed of my name, my testimony and my ability to evangelize and proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
What would happen if we took our sin seriously? If we stopped relying on our own strength, stopped thinking we were not totally depraved apart from the work of the Spirit, what if we lived lives that cried out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"?
Father, we pray for this awakening in our hearts, show us your will through your word, teach us to be obedient and keep us as far from temptation as possible, most of all we pray for forgiveness of sins, both known and unknown, Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on us. Amen.
The story continues with the man (men) crying out, the Greek word used here is kékraga, this is an onomatopoeia imitating the horse cry of a raven. To cry out, entreat.
he began to cry out and say, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" vs 47
The best explanation i can find for the title "Son of David" comes from Jeremiah 23:5 when the prophet declares, "Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land."
The prophets saw the future like peaks of mountains in the distance, describing what they saw and were told, they were unaware of the valleys in between, so here is a prophecy concerning the coming Messiah. Many Jews anticipated the arrival and many even thought it was Jesus Himself as we will see in the next chapter, Jesus claimed to be the Messiah (John 10:24-33) and His disciples believed it also (Mark 8:29), back to the story.
And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" vs 48
How would the church respond to a prostitute coming in to church dressed up in her work clothes, crying out, "Jesus have mercy on me!" Or what if a drunk stumbled in 10 min sober, interrupting service with, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" how would we respond?
Sadly i confess that i would be a little bit uncomfortable. I dont know if i would know what to do or how to respond at the moment. i would like to say that i would walk up to him and throw my arms around him telling him about the mercy that Jesus has for him. Have we become all too comfortable with where we are in our life? Sometimes i think i know enough biblical truth to get me in trouble, to rely on the doctrine and not the God, to have my faith in faith and not in Jesus. When life is smooth and i have the necessities i tend to lean away from the bible and sermons and rely on my own strength, creating a circular life of placing Jesus at the center, then myself, and when i screw up i place Jesus back on the throne where he belongs. What would it be like if I saw my sin for what it was; a lie, deception, a factor that hinders my relationship with God, an offense to God, a robber of my peace and joy, a spiritual inhibitor that prevents any true growth, a destroyed of my name, my testimony and my ability to evangelize and proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
What would happen if we took our sin seriously? If we stopped relying on our own strength, stopped thinking we were not totally depraved apart from the work of the Spirit, what if we lived lives that cried out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"?
Father, we pray for this awakening in our hearts, show us your will through your word, teach us to be obedient and keep us as far from temptation as possible, most of all we pray for forgiveness of sins, both known and unknown, Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on us. Amen.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)