Sermon Audio

Sunday, we will return to Mark and the final week of Jesus’ earthly life. Mark 12:13-17 continues the confrontations between Jesus and religious leaders. He entered Jerusalem amid cries of Hosanna and cleansed the temple of money changers. He also rebuked the scribes and elders with the parable of the wicked tenants. At this point, the leaders of Judaism want Him out of the way, but three times, Mark tells us they feared the crowds. In the next sections, groups of high-ranking religious leaders will try to trap Jesus with questions so the crowd will turn against Him, or perhaps He will say something that could offend Rome. Mark 12:13-17 presents a political question about taxes with no good answer. Yet, Jesus recognizes and reveals the hypocrisy of those asking questions and offers one of His most famous sayings, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (v. 17). In this simple statement, Jesus shows us how authority should be properly ordered. He does not mean that some things belong to Caesar and others belong to God, and that each should be kept separate. Jesus exposes their trap and hypocrisy by illustrating the hierarchy of authority. Caesar does have legitimate, God-ordained authority (Rom. 13:1-7; 1 Pt. 2:13-17), but Caesar’s authority is also limited. There is only one Lord of all, not two, and just as Caesar’s image appears on the coin that belongs to him, you are made in God’s image, and therefore, all you are belongs to Him. Christians are to submit to earthly authorities God has ordained, but no authority except God commands our highest allegiance and total obedience. Sunday, we will explore this passage in detail and ask, "Since we bear God’s image, what are we to render to Him?"

I. Jesus Faces A Political Trap (v. 13-14)

II. Jesus Exposes The Questioner’s Hypocrisy (v. 15-16a)

III. Jesus Explains Proper Authority (v. 16-17)  

On Sunday, we will examine Mark 12:1-12. As chapter 11 concluded, Jewish leaders confronted Jesus, demanding to know by what authority He disrupted the temple operations by overturning the money changers’ tables. Jesus exposed their self-centered authority and refused to answer their question. Mark 12:1-12 continues that conversation. Jesus responds to the religious leaders with a parable. Often called the Parable of the Wicked Tenants, Jesus uses a story to reveal the wickedness of these leaders’ sin and God’s plan of salvation. A vineyard owner carefully plants, protects, and tends to his vineyard (echoing Isaiah 5:1-2, where Israel is the Lord’s beloved vineyard), then leases it to tenant farmers. At harvest, he rightly sends servants to collect his share of the fruit, but the tenants beat one, shame another, and kill a third—rejecting every messenger. These "servants" represent the Old Testament prophets whom Israel repeatedly persecuted (Jeremiah 7:25-26; 2 Chronicles 36:15-16). Yet the owner shows great patience and longsuffering as he continues to send servants to call for the fruit owed to him. He even sends his beloved son, thinking, “Surely they will respect him.” Instead, the tenants murder the heir, plotting to seize the inheritance for themselves. In this parable, the vineyard symbolizes God’s people, God is the vineyard’s owner, the prophets are the servants sent by the owner, Jesus is the Son who is killed, and Israel’s leaders are the tenants who want ownership of the vineyard. Jesus’ parable ends with God bringing justice by destroying the tenants—not the vineyard itself—and entrusting it to “others” (v. 9). These "others" are the Apostles, through whose preaching many will come to faith in Jesus and receive the Spirit, who produces the fruit God commands. This interpretation is confirmed as Jesus concludes the conversation with the religious leaders by quoting Psalm 118:22-23 (the same Psalm the crowd quoted as He entered the city). Jesus says that the stone the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone. Jesus is the cornerstone of the Temple in which we are built (See Eph. 2:19-22). God owns the vineyard of His people and our lives; He deserves the fruit of worship, repentance, and obedience, and His long-suffering kindness is meant to lead us to repentance. We are called to entrust our lives to Jesus so we might bear fruit in His name. 

I. God is Owed The Vineyard’s Fruit (v. 1-2)

II. God Is Gracefully Patient In Calling For Fruit (3-6)

III. God Will Judge & Restore His Vineyard (v. 7-9)

IV. God Will Build His Temple Upon His Son (10-11)

On Sunday, we will dive into Mark 11:12-25, a challenging passage to understand and interpret. As Mark has done before (and will do several more times), he places one story inside another. Jesus’ cleansing of the temple is placed between His cursing of the fig tree. When Jesus finds no figs on the tree, He declares that no one will eat fruit from it again. The next day, they pass by the tree and see it withered to the root. Earlier, Mark "sandwiched" Jesus’ healing of the woman with the issue of blood between the healing of Jairus’ daughter, and just as in that passage, here the cleansing of the temple interprets the cursing of the fig tree. In the Old Testament, a fig tree and a vineyard were common symbols for Israel. Therefore, the cursing of the fig tree serves as a prophetic warning condemning the fruitless temple worship in Jerusalem, which Jesus will immediately address. The fig tree, full of leaves but bearing no fruit, and the temple, busy with activity but lacking true worship, both face Jesus’ judgment. However, the interpretive challenges of this passage don’t end there. When the disciples see the withered tree, Jesus begins teaching about prayer, faith, and forgiveness. Jesus’ response to Peter, who notes that the fig tree is withered, might seem like Jesus is shifting to a new topic unrelated to the story. (And some believe He does.) However, I believe Jesus is beginning to teach the disciples what He will make clearer during His last week of life. The temple was the place where prayers were offered and accepted by God, and where forgiveness was found. Yet, Jesus has just pronounced judgment on the corruption of the temple’s worship. How can prayers be offered, and forgiveness found, if not in the temple? Jesus’ final words in this section (22-25) reveal that by faith, prayers are answered, mountains are moved, and forgiveness is both received and extended to others. Take time to read Mark 11:12-25 several times; it is a difficult passage with a high risk of misunderstanding. Most of the sermon will focus on explaining the text, but ultimately, we discover that as the church, we are now God’s temple (both as a body -1 Co. 3:16-17; and as individual Christians - 1 Co. 6:19-20), called to bear fruit through praying in faith, forgiving as we are forgiven, and being a light for all nations. 

I. The Symbolic Fruitless Fig Tree (12-14; 20-21)

II. The Fruitless Worship In The Temple (15-19)

III. The Fruitful Worship OF The Temple (22-25)

Sunday, we will study the triumphant entry in Mark 11:1-11. As we study this very familiar passage, we find a host of prophecies fulfilled as Jesus intentionally and publicly declares Himself Messiah and King. Jesus is surrounded by throngs of people praising and proclaiming Him as the Messiah as they cry out, quoting Psalm 118, but just like the disciples, the crowd does not understand that Jesus came as the King who gives His life as a ransom for many. Sunday, our outline is pretty simple but still relates the profound truth that though the people shouting do not receive Jesus as the kind of Messiah he came to be, He declares Himself King by riding a donkey’s colt into Jerusalem knowing that this will lead to His crucifixion, because even the fickle crowd and the perpetually oblivious disciples cannot be saved unless He goes to the cross…and neither could we. 

I. Jesus Comes As The Prophesied King & Savior (1-6)

II. Jesus Does Not Come To Fulfill Our Expectations (7-11)

I hope you have been following our journey through the gospel of Mark because Sunday’s text (Mark 10:46-52) marks a significant turning point in the book. In chapters 1-8, Jesus demonstrated His identity as Messiah and the Son of God through His miracles and parables. However, the people, even the disciples, did not fully understand. All of this came to a head at the end of Mark 8 when Jesus asked the disciples who they say He is. Peter finally confesses that Jesus is the Christ, but the twelve disciples still do not understand what kind of Messiah He has come to be. They think He will go to Jerusalem to reign, but Jesus tells them He is going there to be humiliated, to die, and to rise from the dead. He also clarifies that following Him means denying oneself and taking up the cross. From Mark 8:34 through 10:52, Jesus teaches the disciples what it truly means to follow Him. They understand Jesus is the Messiah, but they do not yet grasp His mission or what discipleship entails. This larger section begins illustrating this through the healing of a blind man in two stages (Mark 8:22-26). Like that blind man, the disciples see but not clearly yet. Each time Jesus explicitly states that He has come to die, they focus on their own glory and greatness (Mark 8:33-37; 10:35-45). Jesus repeatedly corrects them, saying that those who want to be great must be servants. He tells them that they must receive the kingdom as a child—desperately dependent—and uses the example of a rich young ruler who refuses to recognize his need and leave everything to follow Jesus. In Mark 10:46-52, right after James and John again seek after glory and greatness, Mark presents us with a powerful example of faith and discipleship. Just as this section began with the healing of a blind man, it now concludes with another blind man’s healing. In contrast to the rich young ruler and James and John’s requests for seats of power, the healing of blind Bartimaeus (the final healing miracle in Mark) depicts the faith and discipleship Jesus has been teaching His followers. Bartimaeus does receive the kingdom as a child. He leaves all to follow Jesus. When Jesus asks, "What do you want me to do for you?" as He asked James and John, Bartimaeus does not ask for glory or greatness—he begs for mercy. Sunday’s text isn’t just another physical healing; it’s a powerful example of how faith sees clearly and follows Jesus. 

I. The Faith That Sees Clearly ( 46-48)

II. The Faith That Perseveres (46-48)

III. The Faith That Acts (49-51)

IV. The Faith That Follows (52)