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Mark 11
The document discusses the authority of Jesus as portrayed in Mark 11, highlighting His entry into Jerusalem on a donkey and the crowd's acclaim. It also includes references to Old Testament prophecies and Jesus' actions in the temple to purify worship. The narrative culminates in a confrontation with religious authorities about the basis of His authority.
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Mark 11
- 1. Welcome to Grace! Goddelivers me and exalts me; God is my strong protector and my shelter. Psalm 62:7 5 For there is one God and one intermediary between God and humanity, Christ Jesus, himself human, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, revealing God’s purpose at his appointed time.
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- 3. Mark 11 • Introduction •Authority Acclaimed, vv. 1-10
- 4. Mark 11 • Introduction •Authority Acclaimed, vv. 1-10 – The donkey, vv. 1-7 “they brought the colt to Jesus, threw their cloaks on it, and he sat on it. 8 Many spread their cloaks on the road and others spread branches they had cut in the fields. 9 Both those who went ahead and those who followed kept shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!”
- 5. Donkey riding inthe Old Testament • Zechariah 9:9-10 “Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion! Shout, daughter of Jerusalem! Look! Your king is coming to you: he is legitimate and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey— on a young donkey, the foal of a female donkey. 10 I will remove the chariot from Ephraim and the warhorse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be removed. Then he will announce peace to the nations. His dominion will be from sea to sea and from the Euphrates River to the ends of the earth.”
- 6. Donkey riding inthe Old Testament • Genesis 49:10-11 “The sceptre will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs; the nations will obey him. 11 Binding his foal to the vine, and his colt to the choicest vine, he will wash his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes.”
- 7. Donkey riding inthe Old Testament • 1 Kings 1 “King David said, “Summon Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah son of Jehoiada.” They came before the king, 33 and he told them, “Take your master’s servants with you, put my son Solomon on my mule, and lead him down to Gihon. 34 There Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet will anoint him king over Israel; then blow the trumpet and declare, ‘Long live King Solomon!’ 35 Then follow him up as he comes and sits on my throne. He will be king in my place; I have decreed that he will be ruler over Israel and Judah.”
- 8. Mark 11 • Introduction •Authority Acclaimed, vv. 1-10 – The donkey, vv. 1-7 “they brought the colt to Jesus, threw their cloaks on it, and he sat on it.
- 9. Mark 11 • Introduction •Authority Acclaimed, vv. 1-10 – The donkey, vv. 1-7 – The crowd, vv. 8-10 “Many spread their cloaks on the road and others spread branches they had cut in the fields. 9 Both those who went ahead and those who followed kept shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!”
- 10. Mark 11 • Introduction •Authority Acclaimed, vv. 1-10 • Authority Exercised, vv. 11-26 • To purify worship, vv. 11 & 15-19
- 11. Hosea 9 The timeof judgment is about to arrive! The time of retribution is imminent! Let Israel know! Israel Rejects Hosea’s Prophetic Exhortations The prophet is considered a fool— the inspired man is viewed as a madman— because of the multitude of your sins and your intense animosity. 8 The prophet is a watchman over Ephraim on behalf of God, yet traps are laid for him along all of his paths; animosity rages against him in the land of his God. The Best of Times, the Worst of Times 9 They have sunk deep into corruption as in the days of Gibeah. He will remember their wrongdoing. He will repay them for their sins. 10 When I found Israel, it was like finding grapes in the wilderness. I viewed your ancestors like an early fig on a fig tree in its first season. Then they came to Baal-Peor and they dedicated themselves to shame— they became as detestable as what they loved.
- 12. Mark 11 • Introduction •Authority Acclaimed, vv. 1-10 • Authority Exercised, vv. 11-26 • To purify worship, vv. 11 & 15-19 • Right up to the Temple, v. 11
- 13. The first dayof the Feast … A – First visit to the Temple B – Cursing of the Fig Tree A – Jesus takes direct action in the Temple B – The fig tree is found to be dead A – Jesus returns to the Temple Barren Temple … withered fig tree
- 14. Mark 11 • Introduction •Authority Acclaimed, vv. 1-10 • Authority Exercised, vv. 11-26 • To purify worship, vv. 11 & 15-19 • Right up to the Temple, v. 11 • The Court of the Gentiles, vv. 15-16
- 15. Mark 11 • Introduction •Authority Acclaimed, vv. 1-10 • Authority Exercised, vv. 11-26 • To purify worship, vv. 11 & 15-19 • Right up to the Temple, v. 11 • The Court of the Gentiles, vv. 15-16 • The nature of the objection, v. 17 • The nature of the objection, v. 17 –Dodgy dealing
- 16. Mark 11 • Introduction •Authority Acclaimed, vv. 1-10 • Authority Exercised, vv. 11-26 • To purify worship, vv. 11 & 15-19 • Right up to the Temple, v. 11 • The Court of the Gentiles, vv. 15-16 • The nature of the objection, v. 17 – Dodgy dealing – Exclusion of the Nations from prayer
- 17. Mark 11 • Introduction •Authority Acclaimed, vv. 1-10 • Authority Exercised, vv. 11-26 – Right up to the Temple, v. 11 – The Court of the Gentiles, vv. 15-16 – The nature of the objection, v. 17 – The response of the ‘Authorities’, vv. 18-19
- 18. Mark 11 • Introduction •Authority Acclaimed, vv. 1-10 • Authority Exercised, vv. 11-26 • Authority Questioned and vindicated, vv. 27-33
- 19. Mark 11:27-33 “They cameagain to Jerusalem. While Jesus was walking in the temple courts, the chief priests, the experts in the law, and the elders came up to him 28 and said, “By what authority are you doing these things? Or who gave you this authority to do these things?” 29 Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question. Answer me and I will tell you by what authority I do these things:30 John’s baptism—was it from heaven or from people? Answer me.” 31 They discussed with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ 32 But if we say, ‘From people—’” (they feared the crowd, for they all considered John to be truly a prophet). 33 So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.” Then Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”
- 20. Mark 11 • Introduction •Authority Acclaimed, vv. 1-10 • Authority Exercised, vv. 11-26 • Authority Questioned and vindicated, vv. 27-33
- 21. Mark 11 • Introduction •Authority Acclaimed, vv. 1-10 • Authority Exercised, vv. 11-26 • Authority Questioned and vindicated, vv. 27-33 • Conclusion
Editor's Notes
- #3 This Gospel began in 1:1 with the assertion of the identity and consequent authority of Jesus Christ as God the Son. Having established his credentials as the One Who was to come, heralded by John the Baptist and acknowledged by the Heavenly voice at His baptism as Go’s beloved Son with Whom the Father was well pleased He broke the tempting power of the devil throughout forty days in the Wilderness and established Himself as the Second Adam … spotless and undefiled, on Whom sin could get NO traction. His public ministry then begins with the agenda being set out in Mark 1:15f … Something cosmic has changed – the Kingdom of God has arrived The appropriate response is to repent & believe the Gospel The consequence of repentance and faith is following the great End Time Fisher of Men …Who alone exercises the Divine Authority to forgive sin – and PROVES it! From that point on, throughout Act 1 of Mark up until the end of chapter 8 Jesus (ministering in Galilee) acts like God the Son come to take up His Kingdom again. Jesus is presented and finally acknowledged by Peter as ‘the Christ’, the long awaited anointed King over God’s restored Kingdom. Act two starts immediately with Jesus spelling out for the first of three times what sort of King He is and what sort of choices He will make in exercising His authority. It’s all about that exercise of authority – the exercise of the authority of the King over His Kingdom as it begins to be restored and just what te exercise of that authority will and won’t look like. It is UTTERLY relevant to the suffering Christians at Rome for whom this Gospel is written! The journey takes Jesus and His followers up to Jerusalem and today – with Mark 12 – the third act begins with Jesus arriving at Jerusalem. And what is the big issue that rears up again immediately? The authority of Jesus Christ as King!
- #4 Jesus and His followers were at home in Act 1 in Galilee – it was home turf. Throughout Act 2 they travelled towards Jerusalem and now at the start of Act 3 we find that they have come to Bethany & Bethphage by the Mount of Olives … They are now in an area that would feel very foreign and where Galileans could expect at best to be tolerated as fellow Jews rather than welcomed as fellow citizens of the place. All the references to Jerusalem in Acts 1 are negative and throughout Act 2 it has been a place to be afraid of, the place where the Messiah will be crucified. The preaching of Act 1 gave way to private teaching in Act 2 but now in Act 3 we move into a phase of public confrontation. Miracles have declined rapidly in frequency since Act 1, with only the highly symbolic healings of the blind people in Act 2 and in the final section of Mark the only miracle will be the ever so negative withering of the fig tree. There is no faith and there are no miracles … just as there hadn’t been in Jesus’s home town of Nazareth in Mark 6 where we’re told: “He was not able to do a miracle there, except to lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. 6 And he was amazed because of their unbelief.” So – the whole thing starts off with Jesus and His followers arriving at Jerusalem. There was a festival on. Loads of people were turning up for the feast. Jesus and His followers could easily have turned up un-noticed if they’d wanted to. But they didn’t want to … By two dramatic actions (the royal procession outside the city walls and the clearing of the Temple) Jesus makes sure His arrival gets noticed. More than that, by these two actions Jesus claims a unique status and authority. Neither will win over the Jerusalem authorities. Mark is introducing the idea that this third act of the Gospel is the start of a decisive confrontation … And it starts with a donkey!
- #5 There is a DELIBERATE seeking out of a previously un-ridden donkey’s colt and what turns out to be a deliberate prophetic enactment takes place. So WHY a donkey? You see, nowhere else do we read of Jesus riding … He walked everywhere … and there is an expectation in the Jewish literature that Passover pilgrims should WALK into the city (M. Hag. 1:1 exempts from the obligation to go up to the festival only those ‘who cannot go up [to Jersalem] on his feet’.) Why a donkey? Because it MEANT something in the OT to do this!
- #6 This is clearly a Messianic passage and the crowd – judging by the things they shout – clearly take this event to have a Messianic significance.
- #7 This is clearly a Messianic passage and the crowd – judging by the things they shout – clearly take this event to have a Messianic significance.
- #8 This is clearly a Messianic passage and the crowd – judging by the things they shout – clearly take this event to have a Messianic significance. At the end of the last section it was blind Bartimaeus who so clearly identified Jesus as the Son of David … and here He comes, riding on that donkey – ‘she mule’ … it’s hard to be specific!
- #9 So Jesus exercises the royal right to requisition a donkey. It is so far unridden – there is special value placed in the OT on hitherto unused animals for religious purposes … And it is conventional that no-one else may ride the King’s mount, which is what gives significance to David’s actions in relation to Solomon. The specific mention of the donkey being tied up echoes the Genesis 49 passage where the beast is tied to a vine. But whatever the specific background to all of this in the Old Testament, the action is seen by contemporaries as an indication that as Jesus rides into Jerusalem He does so as her rightful King.
- #10 Their actions, first of all, are quite telling … Clothes get laid on the road as a ‘red carpet’ for a dignitary in (e.g.) 2 Kings 9:13. You notice this is not a description of the lulav waved at the Feast of Tabernacles but – the word used is στιβάδας στιβάς 1) branch, leafy limb It’s the non-specified sort of vegetation you might cut and strew on the floor as animal bedding. Then there’s their even more telling words … ‘Hosanna’ comes from Ps. 118:25 – the last of the great Hallel Psalms recited at festivals in Jerusalem … and certainly used at Passover. It wold be a great idea to read the Great Hallel – Pss. 115-118 – on Thursday night and just contemplate what the Lord was thinking as they went through the last Passover meal reciting these! It meant ‘save us now’ but became a rather general ascription of praise to God due to its common use in festival worship. This is evident from the way it’s used in Matt. 21:9 & 15 where the following dative reveals it is just a way to say something like: ‘Hallelujah’. The big question is … Who are they addressing his to? The title ‘Son of David’ heard at Jericho from no-longer-blind Bartimaeus recurs here … they are expecting Jesus to re-establish and reign on David’s throne. Jesus is now – after this incident outside the walls of Jerusalem being acclaimed NOT by the Jerusalem crowd but by the Galilean crowd on pilgrimage – well in the frame to be seen as the King of the Jews.
- #11 When Jesus enters Jerusalem He exercises His authority in the barren Temple and against the barren fig tree. In the first instance, He uses His authority to address the corruption of Israel’s worship ….
- #12 And Jesus comes to the centre of their religion with a fig tree in the frame ad a passage like THAT in the background!
- #13 When Jesus made that trip up to Jerusalem for the Passover He wasn’t actually heading up to Jerusalem … the goal of His journey was actually the Temple at Jerusalem and – it appears – He was specifically motivated to get to the Court of the Gentiles. Given what we know of the role of the Messiah to bring all nations together under the headship of the Christ … that seems significant. It was by then late in the day – a long and arduous journey of a day. He looked around the Temple but left for the hospitality of the home of Mary and Martha outside Jerusalem in a little village out on the slopes of the Mount of Olives. An odd incident arises early the next day on the way back into the city but we’ll hold that thought for a moment until we’ve looked at the events of that first full day at the Feast, because then it will make more sense to us at this distance in time. The narrative on that day goes like this:
- #14 All leaf – no fruit.
- #15 It seems that of the many factor that led to Jesus’s death, the one that most united the people of Jerusalem against Him was His being perceived as an opponent of the Temple. So Jesus returns to the Temple that first day and focuses on the outer court that even Gentiles were allowed into … He has two major objections to what He was seeing there …
- #16 What Antiochus Epiphanes had done by blatant idolatry, the Jewish leaders themselves achieved by means of blatant commercial interest … Temple worship had lost its true focus and must again be purified. Now, that is something which was expected of the Messiah … But Ezek. 37:26-28 makes it clear that the Gentiles destiny is to be incorporated into what happens at that time: “I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be a perpetual covenant with them. I will establish them, increase their numbers, and place my sanctuary among them forever. 27 My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people. 28 Then, when my sanctuary is among them forever, the nations will know that I, the Lord, sanctify Israel.’” Zechariah describes those days like this (Zech. 14:21): “There shall no longer be traders in the house of the Lord …”
- #22 Barren Temple – withered fig tree … Jesus CONFRONTS.