I invite you to turn this morning to Matthew chapter 21 as we continue our study in Matthew, and we come to Jesus cleansing the temple and cursing the fig tree, and that's found on page 982. I'll read verses 12 through 22 this morning of Matthew chapter 21. Let's give our attention this morning to God's holy word.
Verse 12: "And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple. And he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. And he said to them, it is written, my house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers. And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did and the children crying out in the temple, Hosanna to the son of David, they were indignant. And they said to him, Do you hear what these are saying? Jesus said to them, Yes. Have you never read, "Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babes you have prepared praise? And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there. In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, may no fruit ever come from you again And the fig tree withered at once. And the disciples saw it; when they saw it, they marveled, saying, how did the fig tree wither at once. And Jesus answered them, truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, "Be taken up and thrown into the sea," it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive if you have faith.
May the Lord bless his word this morning.
Well, what does Jesus see when he looks at a home? When he looks at a church? When he looks at a nation? What does Jesus see? That's a that's a very important question that really is captured here this morning in this particular text. We always have said: something can look good on the outside, but on the inside, it can be totally rotten. And Matthew has given great attention to this. Matthew has shown us this throughout the whole book. there's themes that are running through this whole book to help us understand this great problem and phenomenon: that something can look good on the outside, but on the inside, it's sick. It's sick. And that's really what's captured for us this morning. That's the heart of the text that is before us today.
Today we're looking at not really the Jesus that we're accustomed to seeing in this passage. He's flipping tables and he's cursing trees. That doesn't seem to be the kind of Jesus we expect or know, does it? And it's teaching us something about him. It's teaching us that he came as also a prophet of mercy, but also a prophet of judgment. That When he came to the nation of Israel, what he found was a sick nation. They had his laws. They had everything that he had given them. Outwardly, they had done everything to conform. They were a nation who knew his ways. They were a nation who understood what the will of the Lord was. And yet, when he says in Matthew 23 as that's coming again, that whole theme throughout the book he will say, "The outside of the cup is clean, but the inside is full of greed and indulgence."
Well, there's those themes that keep running up in Matthew. And I hope you see that how this answers everything that you saw play out This week. This is a direct tie to it all. This is the issue. This is the heart of the problem. It's a marvelous text to understand why things go the way that they do, to understand what's happening. And then, of course, to not leave us there, but as this text does, give us a solution to all of this. It leaves us with a marvelous solution. And that's what we're looking at this morning: which is the solution to all sin and misery that we see in this life.
Here we have Jesus visiting the nation of Israel before he goes to the cross. And he's headed to the cross. He has already made the triumphal entry. We know that it's coming soon for him to go and to die. It's all going to play out. And here we see come together him as a prophet of mercy and of judgment for unbelief. It's a question of this particular text: of very simply by way of metaphor and analogy and help to us, what does he find on a tree when he comes and looks at it? What does he find on a tree when he comes and looks at it?
The goal, of course, is not judgment in this passage. The goal is that we would learn from this that generations would read this and take what he is drawing out from it to help us see the solution to the problem that he's exposing. So this morning, Jesus is visiting Israel here, and what he is describing is what he found in the center of her religious life: in the temple. What he did about that. And what he gave as a solution to escape that.
We have entered the final week here of his life on earth as we've been working through Matthew and this wonderful gospel, and making that triumphal entry. Now it is evening. He returns to Bethany. And in the morning, he comes back to Jerusalem. And where does Jesus go? Of all places, he heads right into the center of all of israel's the heart of all of her religious life the temple.
Keep in mind what Old Testament prophecy said about Jesus: when he would come, the Messiah, when he would come and he would arrive at the temple. This is right from Malachi 3: "Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to his temple, and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight behold he's coming," says the Lord of hosts. "But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?"
Here we are. He appears, and he walks right in the middle of the temple. Everyone is busy everyone is busy in service. There's just bustling and bustling. There's activity everywhere. Remember, uh this is Passover season, so everyone is bringing bringing their animals for sacrifices. As I said last time, Josephus records that there are 256 000 lambs being brought into the city at this time. He is the lamb, of course. Everything looks remarkable. It looks like there's a lot of activity and action. It looks like health. The leaders are there. Everyone's following protocol carefully. The divisions of the temple are being maintained. They're fastidious, and they're adhering to all of their tradition. As we've looked at it, looks like life. It looks like blessing.
Well, what's going on? Jesus walks into this. He walks into the court of gentiles it's 14 acres here packed with people, all kinds of activity. And we read that he finds at the entrance those who sold oxen and sheep with doves and money changers doing business.
Now, worshipers could have brought their own lambs for the Passover, but what was going on is you had temple police and you had judges. And remember, these lambs according to the Old testament had to be without blemish they had to be perfect in inspection. And so you walked in the temple, and there were inspectors there to inspect the lambs to see if they passed code. We've never met people like this. And there were vendors and dealers everywhere in the in the temple, exchanging cattle and sheep and their pigeons for offerings. The poor, of course, brought the pigeons. They're charging ballpark prices. Ballpark prices. And who's going to pay that, right? Who wants to pay that? People are being completely exploited. They're being taken advantage of. A pigeon worth a nickel sold for four bucks, probably.
Out of this, every Jew coming into the temple had to pay the temple tax. And so they could only pay, of course, in holy currency. So holy currency, which means you could never put in money in there in the holy temple tax that had Caesar's face on it. That's offensive. That's idolatry. How could we profane the temple with that kind of money? So when they brought their half shekel, they had money changers. And what do money changers do? They charge fees.
So Jesus is walking into the midst of all this. Jesus is looking at all this. It's like a swap meet: cattle dealers, money changers, long lines, mass extortion. And we read something shocking of Jesus. Just what we sang out in the psalm, just what we read from Malachi, that he has a moment here in righteous anger, and he casts them all out. I don't know how that went down, but it must have been something. He drove them out with force. We know from John 2 he even made a whip of strands and whipped people.
As he's casting out, just as he cast out demons from people, he's casting out these guys from the temple. It's the same language. And then he takes the money changers, big bins. I mean, you could just imagine this: all the coins that are collected, thousands and thousands of coins. And he takes the bin and he flips it over in the middle of the temple. Can you imagine the moment of that? You ever seen an outburst of somebody? What everyone does? All the coins spill all over the floor. And then he takes their seats and he starts flipping them. I can only imagine what that looked like.
This is righteous anger. We should be amazed that he only did this. Then he says, "It is written, my house shall be called a house of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers."
This is this is so important to understand the passage is taken by many today as a radical Jesus who came to crush effeminate, soft, weak people, and so we need a Jesus just like this. That's the prevalent view today. What it actually is: is Jesus coming to overturn the proud, the arrogant, the wicked leaders who turned the ministry into something oppressive that it was never designed to be. The people who typically herald this passage do not realize they would be the ones he's overturning.
Then he cites Isaiah 56. And this is a really powerful always you should read these in context. "And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it and holds fast my covenant then I will bring to my holy mountain and make them now listen to this joyful in the house of prayer. By the way, the first miracle of Christ, when he turned water into wine, was a miracle of joy for people. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar. For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples." The Lord God, the Lord God that's who's here who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares, I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered
So notice: when he comes to his temple, Isaiah celebrates this, that there is going to be restoration. There is going to be joy. Sacrifices will be accepted. And I'm going to gather all the outcasts. That was Isaiah, so many years previous.
Think of um the purpose of the temple when Solomon dedicated it um in First Kings eight "Moreover, concerning a foreigner who is not of your people Israel but has come from a far country for your namesake for they will hear of your great name and your strong hand and your outstretched arm when he comes and prays toward his temple here in heaven, your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to you, that all listen to this, this is the temple, that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, that they may know that this temple which I have built is called by your name."
Purpose: for everyone to come and worship the Lord and be received by him, be loved by him, pray to him, make sacrifice to him with joy through his sacrifice. The whole thing in Israel had been ruined. There was no intention to lead people to the Lord in prayer and in sacrifice and in help. The whole ministry became outwardly cloaked and something righteous. On the inside, it was sick, full of greed, power, money.
The cleansing of the temple was an indictment all throughout history, and symbolic of his judgment on empty religion, Empty religion. lip service, fruitless service. no no service is there. Fruitless service, empty service, phony service, hypocritical service.
Notice: nothing of what the ministry was designed to be was honored. It had been ransacked. And in that way, at the heart of it, the whole thing became devoid of what is intended: your salvation.
This is why I can't understand why people who turned the house of the Lord today in modern worship into a show, and people who criticize that, get killed for that. Do not draw the direct connection here. Jesus would have flipped the whole thing over. And people would have been criticizing him for it. The house of the Lord is a place of refuge for people who need to be saved. People need help. You need help. Just at this moment, to make this point, we read: then The who came the blind and the lame in the temple to him.
How many times do we need to see this, right? How many times do we need to see this to see the point of all Christianity and what this is? The needy come to him. And, of course, the unclean or made clean. And and and and the religious leaders see this whole thing and immediately they they begin to criticize him when they saw notice how Matthew captures that. He doesn't want us to miss it the wonderful things he was doing for them." And then, of course, what have we been learning about children? "Lord, who's greatest in the kingdom?" Sets a little child before before them. These the children here are crying out. in The temple The proud don't cry out The proud don't sing the proud can barely move their lips the children are belting out "Hosanna" to the son of david you know what hosanna means, right? "Save us." Save us. Children crying out. "Oh, not these guys. Not the proud. They're indignant." "Do you hear what they're saying? You hear what they're saying about you?" "Yeah, they got it. This is the Messiah. They believe him. The children believe him."
And Jesus responds with Psalm eight "Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants, you have perfected praise, prepared it, oh Lord, our Lord. hears from How majestic is your name in all the earth. You have set your glories above the heavens. Who's singing this, beloved? Who's singing Psalm eight It's the children. Out of the mouth of babes and infants, you've established strength because of your foes. The strength is in the children. Everything's backward. You have stilled the enemy and the avenger."
The worship of God and the entire temple was to declare his purpose: to deliver people from sin. And the children are the true worshipers. That's why they matter. That's why they worship.
Now, what's the whole point here? The whole thing's barren. The whole thing's barren. It's like the little widow, remember, when she put in her widow, the mites, and they were taking that and using it for all their corruption. The next words out of Jesus's mouth were, "The whole temple's coming down." See that? That's what I'm after. And they've wrecked it.
Now we're set up for what follows, okay? Now we're set up. We read that he was hungry. Jesus was hungry in the next scene. Remember how I said you always read these things together? Jesus is hungry in the next scene. He returned to the city, but he was hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the road, he came to it and found nothing on it. Just leaves.
I don't know if you've ever had this experience, but I've had it my whole life of trying to grow something, and I just don't get fruit. And I'm looking at the tree thinking, there's just beautiful leaves over this thing. Where are the apples? Well, this is exactly what he walks up on. Maybe there's figs on this thing. None. Not one fig.
Jesus looks at the tree and curses it. He kills the tree in one word. He chopped down the tree, if you will, in one word. He ended the life of the tree in one word. He he zapped whatever was there. The entire beautiful tree then immediately withered right in front of their eyes. You imagine! And what's happening here? The whole thing is symbolic.
Here's something that really agitated him our Lord. And it's good to understand why when we sing all these psalms that talk about his righteous judgment. It has a vital, deep meaning for us, crucial to understand everything that follows, crucial to understand life.
Fig trees, of course, were common throughout Palestine. Their presence was long-standing in Israel. And the fig tree became the symbol of Israel by all the prophets when they wanted to indict Israel and the nation of Israel. In fact, in many cases, the fig tree represented Israel itself. It was their sign. It was their symbol. Israel was compared to it.
Malachi 7: "Woe is me, for I am like those who gather summer fruits, like those who glean vintage grapes. There is no cluster to eat, of the first ripe fruit which my soul desires. The faithful man has perished from the earth." Notice that. Notice the connection. "There is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood. Every man hunts his brother with a net." There's just no fruit on this tree.
Now, it isn't that hard to begin to put this all together. Jesus had just come in the temple. The Jews are indignant, wanting to keep the children out of it all, as they're the true worshipers. And now they're crying out, "Hosanna, save us!" And they're furious. And they can't stand that the unclean are coming to him, the blind And the lame. And so right after this, Jesus walks up to the symbol of Israel and curses it: "Let no fruit ever grow on you again."
The nation right there anticipating A.D. 70, nationally it was over. It's the answer to all the dispensationalists today. And this indictment was saying to us that when he came to a tree that was full of green leaves and there was no fruit, is teaching us that there can be a lot of activity in our lives, religious activity, in the outward form of religion, but nothing on the inside. Nothing on the inside.
And the disciples are shocked at this. What a lesson, right? The fig tree is for understanding the kind of Christianity that has a lot of leaves and no fruit. That's the point. The entire ministry had missed everything it was about. And you can just fill in what people think the church is today: social club, entertainment, just put it all in. Recovery of power. You can miss the whole thing.
Everyone this week's talking about the death of Charlie Kirk. That was awful. Terrible events this week. And not just that. You saw the other events of the young girl on the subway, the children at the Catholic school. It's putting people over the top. At the heart of it, I think people have to ask, "Why do these things happen? What does it really say? What does it really say?" You're not going to get this on the news. They only look at symptoms.
Well, we can start here by saying Israel was a sick nation. Something at the root was wrong. And we can say today the same thing. A man can grow up in a Mormon household, conservative, doing everything that looks fine. But on the inside, that heart is sick. That heart is sick. We can have a family that looks the same: "Look at us. Look at me. I'm dressed well. We're in church." But are we sick on the inside? We can look at a church. There's much activity. There's much service. But at the root, something on the inside is sick. There's no fruit. We can look at our lives and apply it the same way. We can look at our nation and say something is sick among the people. Something is really sick going on.
I might not have been able to preach this the same way, but this moment gives it to me, doesn't it? Because who can disagree with me?
And we all try to capture the picture-perfect life. We want to make sure everyone sees that we're good and that we're right and we're together and everything's perfect. But the sickness of the tree is what we call nihilism, as I mentioned. That means we are living in a nation of people who believe life is meaningless.
What is the problem? No spiritual life on the inside. I mean, Jesus was really serious when he said to Nicodemus, "You need to be born again born from above."
And today, what is everyone vying for as the solution to this? Now, this is where it gets interesting. What is everyone vying as a solution to all this? Everyone is vying to try to fix the problems what Externally, right? Externally. "If we just fix political life, if we just fix law, if we just fix outward conformity, if we make everything Christian," when we do that, you'll still have the same problem that Matthew describes.
As important as those things may be in some ways, we need a righteousness that far exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees. We need something far more radical than merely drawing near with our mouths. It has to do with the heart, beloved. And that's in context what Matthew's showing us today.
Who comes? The blind, the lame, the children. And he healed them and he received their praise. We too need the children crying out. Think of all we've learned about children in these last weeks. What children teach us. "Hosanna, save us, save us." That's what "Hosanna" means. "Save us." Where's that solution being championed today?
And the cursing of the fig tree is the warning here: "Let no fruit ever grow on you again." The disciples come, and they can't understand this. And the message is clear: What about the time when Jesus comes and inspects our tree? What does he find?
Now, what if the sermon was over? It would be an awful sermon, because you have no hope. But it's not. Jesus answered, "Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, be taken up and thrown into the sea, it will happen. Whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive if you have faith."
Now, I think this is just a remarkable moment in the Gospels. Do you listen to Jesus? Do I listen to Jesus? I find this teaching in the midst of one of the most horrible scenes to be one of the brightest Gospel teachings in the whole New Testament. It's absolutely wonderful.
How can a tree have life? How can you have life? And Jesus says, "There's only one way." Israel is an example to teach the world. It's a life of faith. This is what people need. Faith connects us to the branch.
Remember what Jesus said in John 15: "Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and it withers. And the branches are gathered and thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me and my words in you, ask whatever you wish and it'll be done." That's amazing. Those are amazing words to us.
"Come to me for life." He's calling us as children to believe in him. Do you believe? No, no. I'm not asking the sort of empty question that just we give and it doesn't goes right over the head. No. Do you really trust him as your savior?
Notice the priority here: "If you have faith and do not doubt, you are not only going to do what was done to this fig tree but You're going to tell mountains to fall into the sea you're gonna you're gonna overturn all kinds of false religion." It's the antidote to a fruitless life. And Jesus uses the most powerful speech to describe it. He's not speaking literally. What he's saying is the seemingly impossible is made possible this way: trust me. Believe in me.
Now, do you see why that would connect to the nihilist idea that I have entertained and given you today? This is what the world needs. There is no life. There is no solution to what we're experiencing on unprecedented levels. None of that, ultimately, will be solved apart from true faith in Christ. And Jesus is saying, "I am the answer. There is meaning." And he gave himself to die and rise again.
Think of what the resurrection declares to us: "I defeated death. Believe and do not doubt."
I love um what our Heidelberg says just to kind of close out to think about this today on Lord's Day Nine. Just listen to this for a minute something you've read your whole life, but meditate on it: "What do you believe when you say, i believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.
What do I believe about that? This is not nihilistic. "That the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who out of nothing created heaven and earth and everything in them, who still upholds them and rules them by his eternal counsel and providence, is my God and Father, for the sake of Christ, his Son. I trust him so much that I do not doubt he will provide whatever I need for body and soul and will turn to my good whatever adversity he sends upon me in this veil of tears."
He's able to do this because he is Almighty God. He desires to do this because he is a faithful Father. That's faith. "I trust him so much I don't out."
And that's what the word captures here. I am not uncertain about him and the work of his Son. In the context, it gives the idea of opposing him in life, disputing with him in life, contending with him in life. And that fits our whole hostile context.
This is how God brings salvation. This is how God helps. And Jesus is encouraging us: a life that believes in him and is certain about him, who comes to him believing that he is, who trusts in the work of his Son and is not at variance with him and is not fighting with him over all the circumstances, but trusts him, opens himself up to exceeding great power in his life.
Hear me when I say that: real power. Real power.
"Whatever things you ask in prayer, you will receive." Power to not be fruitless is what he's talking about. And that's an encouragement to us.
He's inviting you to come to him. He's inviting all of us today to come to him by faith. He's calling us to him as the solution. Christ has risen from the dead. He's inviting you to believe that. Calling you to believe that. Repent and believe. that he will generously give exactly what you're seeking in life by faith.
This is a wonderful truth today. This is the answer to the meaningless of this of life that we see of so many play out in a barren world, beloved. And I hope it encourages you: how wonderful he is. He didn't leave you without an answer.
A life of faith is a fruit-filled life. A life of faith that trusts him is not a barren life. It has real meaning. It has real purpose. And the Lord will bless you, and the Lord will keep you. This is his promise to us.
So when we see the sadness of this world and all the people who don't have faith, we pray for them to have faith. And we ourselves remember what we need. We are the blind. We're the lame. We're the little children. And it begins with doing what the children did here: "Hosanna. Save us. Give us life that we might be a blessing to all your people."
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, thank you for your wonderful word to us and for giving us answers. And, Lord, as we see barrenness and emptiness, nihilism of people who think this life is just meaningless how sad it is when we hear a call like this to a life of faith in Christ where life flows from the vine to the branches: grant us true faith, oh Lord. Let us trust you. And help us in weakness and in sorrow. And for those who mourn, to be comforted to know that the resurrection of Christ is the answer for us. Give us faith that he has risen and triumphed over death, sin, and the grave. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.