House of Prayer
- “If we call upon the Lord, He has promised in His word to answer, to bring the unsaved to Himself, to pour out His Spirit among us. If we don’t call on the Lord, He has promised nothing- nothing at all. It’s as simple as that.” ~ Jim Cymbala
Mark 11:11 Jesus goes into the Temple and looks around. He took in what he saw.
- So I am sure He was talking to the Father about what He saw and what He should do.
Mark 11:12-14 I want to highlight just two different things that are going on here.
- First, I believe that there is a metaphor between the fig tree not having any fruit and what Jesus saw in the Temple the day before.
- Second, Jesus is teaching the disciples a lesson about faith filled prayer.
Mark 11:15-17 Jesus now enters the Temple again. But this time He has a plan,
- He begins driving out the merchants. “throw, cast, put out, banish”
- What is the problem with the merchants? Briefly: They were preventing people from worshipping.
Verse 17 Jesus says, “My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.”
- The house of prayer for all nations is a quote from Isa 56:7
- Two keys that are highlighted in this passage in Isa are:
- First, that the Lord’s house will be a house of Prayer.
- Second, The Lord is making a way for other nations to come to Him.
- Back in Mark And the den of robbers is a quote from Jer 7:11
- The prophet Jeremiah was warning against what he called false religion.
- When God says house of prayer, he means the essence of the Lord’s house is to be prayer.
- And the subsequent fruit. Prayer always bears fruit.
- It has to be, we in our own strength are capable of very little, things only happen as we pray and ask the Lord to do it.
- Two keys that are highlighted in this passage in Isa are:
Verse 17 continues “For all nations” The concept in Isa is that there would be one Temple for all nations, not separate Temples for each nation. One God for all nations.
“But you have made it a den of robbers” Jesus’ teaching or admonition then turns to a quote from Jer 7:11
- The people in the Temple of Jesus’ day had made it about religious practice. False religion.
- When Jesus visited the Temple the day before these two passages clearly came to mind for him.
Mark 11:20-24 The next day after Jesus clears out the Temple, they all come upon that fig tree, it’s now dead.
- Jesus uses the incident to teach His disciples a lesson on faith filled prayer.
- In order to pray faith filled prayers they must be big enough to be beyond us.
- Jesus talks about telling mountains to go jump in a lake.
- A house of prayer needs to have some of that same attitude. Praying big bold faith filled prayers.