My house shall be called a house of prayer

LIMAVADY INDEPENDENT METHODIST CHURCH

SERMON NOTES FROM SUNDAY 2 APRIL 2023

MARK 11 VERSES 12 - 26

This being Palm Sunday, the beginning of what we term Holy Week, the week of Passion, described for us the entering in of Jesus to Jerusalem.  It was a direct fulfilment of Zechariah 9 verse 9 "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion shout, O daughter of Jerusalem behold, thy King cometh unto thee; he is just and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass and upon a colt the foal of an ass."  We can imagine the scene.  The crowds coming into Jerusalem flocking in to that city.  Can see Jesus coming sitting on the colt of an ass.  The people as they saw it remembered what it had been written 500 years previously.  Now he was fulfilling prophecy.  Remember what Jesus himself said "heaven and earth shall pass away but my words shall not pass away." (Matthew 24 verse 35)  The people came out in jubilation and exaltation, they ut their clothes onto the road as he entered, they hailed him as a king coming.  Sad to say how quickly and suddenly it all changed.  Less than a week they would cry out "away with him, crucify him, we will not have this man to rule over us."  Mark records 2 occasions of disappointment - the money changers in the temple and the fig tree with no fruit on it.  Both symbolised a lack of faith in Israel.  The temple was the main central place of worship but its heart was corrupt.  Jeremiah said "the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it?" (Jeremiah 19 verse 9)

In verse 17 we read these words "My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves." God's house should be the house of prayer.  Jesus now comes to the important sacred place of worship.  The place where he promised to meet with his people.  When the ark of the covenant was placed in the holy of holies God promised the high priest he would meet with him there.  In the New Testament we read "where two or three are gathered together in my name ... behold there am I in the midst." (Matthew 18 verse 20)  If we could centre our thoughts on him, forget about everything that has happened yesterday and what might happen tomorrow, realise that God is here with us today, the God who loved us and sent his son into the world to die on that middle cross of Calvary because we have sinned.  That the only way Jesus could do it was to leave the splendours of heaven to come into this world and die for your sins and mine.  This temple was the place where God met with the people.  The heart is the temple of the Lord (1 Corinthians 3 verse 16),  These people were messing the house of God.  They made it into a place of money changing rather than worship.  Jesus found traders exchanging and making money.  They were abusing the house of God.  We see that even today.  The house of God is misused and abused.  At the Passover many would gather in the city of Jerusalem. They came from all parts to the outer court of the Gentiles.  It was the place where the lambs were bought and killed.  Made ready for sacrifice.  Here they were more interested in selling and exchanging money.  Rather than bringing the lambs with them for the slaughter the people bought them here.  They were afraid of something happening along the way, contaminating the lamb.  Only the perfect lamb was suitable.  It had to be without blemish.  The people came into the temple and purchased their lamb.  On that day people saw it as a time of profit.  They asked exuberant prices.  They knew they would get it.  Think of the Lord - without sin, born of the virgin Mary.  He could die for you and me.  we can celebrate the sinless lamb of God who suffered, bled and died, was buried and rose again.  Doves were also sold to the poorest people.  The traders were there to exchange money at great interest rates.  The people's currency was the Roman coin but in the temple it had to be changed to 1 shekel.  The rate of exchange was high.  Imagine the scene when Jesus walked in to that temple that day.  He saw the money changers sitting at the tables lining their pockets with profit.  He was angry and overturned the tables.  During this coming Holy Week there will be much by way of religious activity yet the Lord will be left on the outside.  The temple was busy getting ready for the sacrifices yet the Lord was far from their minds.  This house is the house of prayer.  The prayer for those to preach God's word and see men and women saved not for entertainment.   Jesus himself said "men ought always to pray and not to faint." (Luke 18 verse 1)  On the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said "when ye pray" not if but when.  Paul writing to Timothy said "first of all pray for kings and all those in authority." (1 Timothy 2 verse 2).  Then he said to the Philippian church "be careful for nothing but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving." (Philippians 4 verse 6)  In Luke 6 verse 28 we read "pray for them which despitefully use you."  That means those who criticise us, say all manner of things against us.  Lift them up before the God of heaven.  In Colossians 4 verse 3 Paul asked the brethren to "pray for us that God would open unto us a door of utterance."  Much prayer, much blessing, little prayer little blessing, no prayer no blessing.

The house of provision. All should be welcomed into the house of God.  In James 2 verse 2, James talked about a rich man that might walk into their assembly and then a poor man comes in off the streets.  He says of the leaders that they would tell the rich man "sit thou here in a good place and to the poor, Stand thou there or sit here under my footstool."  He goes on to ask "Are ye not then partial in yourselves?"  Maybe they didn't say it out but rather thought it inwardly.  Do we think of people who we could get into a good position in the church but others we have no need of?  This is a house for all nations.  Saul was a zealot for the Lord.  He hated Christians with a vengeance.  He would lock them up in prisons and even ordered some to be put to death.  In the city he sat for 3 days blind.  Ananias was called to go and minister to him.  He knew everything out him and how evil he was.  When Saul opened that door that day that must have been the most comforting words he ever heard - 'Brother Saul'.  Imagine the warmth and welcome he received.  What must have been going through Saul's mind at that moment in time as he looked back on the families he had separated and cast into prison, even ordering their deaths?  When he came to Jerusalem Barnabas took him by the hand and welcomed him.  Remember when he later was lying in a cold prison cell and another man was put alongside him - Onesimus.  Onesimus had stolen from his master.  Paul took him and told him the story of Christ.  He came and trusted the Lord in the prison through Paul's word.  When he wrote to the Romans Paul spoke of differences in believers, strong in what they believed but the house of God was for all.  It should be a place where they feel comfortable and welcomed.  A place to hear the word of God.

The house of power.  Whenever prayer is want to be made there is power.  Remember the prayer meeting outside the city of Philippi.  A habit was made to go there week after week.  God came down that day as Paul preached.  Spurgeon would often take visitors down into the basement of his church and show them the boiler but then he would open another door where 4/500 people prayed and pleaded for God to work.  Jesus brought the temple back to its proper use.  What happened as a result of Jesus overturning the tables? "And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple and he healed them." (Matthew 21 verse 14)  Remember one day when Jesus was teaching in Capernaum and the Pharisees and doctors of the law were sitting there.  They came from all  Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem "and the power of the Lord was present to heal them." (Luke 5 verse 17)  A man was brought on a stretcher that day.  His 4 friends carried him to where Jesus was but there was a hindrance.  The crowd was so great they couldn't get into the house.  So they took him onto the roof and removed the roof.  They then lowered him down for healing.  It was the place of power.  We might need to pray for that presence of God today.  If we have that then we have power.  Men might be healed of their sin and forgiven.  When we have the presence of God we need nothing more.  Matthew 21 verse 15 an anthem was raised, the religious leaders were horrified but they had to acknowledge there was something happening.  The house of God was being restored to its proper use.  God can renew us.  The children began to praise him.  Psalm 50 verse 23 "whoso offereth praise glorifieth me and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God."

My house shall be a house of praise. A house of provision - to provide a welcome and comfort to all, a house of power - where men and women's lives can be changed under the preaching of his word, a house of praise - where we lift up our voices to God for who he is and what he has done for us.  It is wonderful to acknowledge what God has done for you and I, a sinner lost, perishing but God has sent his son to die for us.  Will you accept it?  "There is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." (Acts 4 verse 12) Notice it is not a case of taking or leaving it but must be saved.