SERMON: THE HEART OF WORSHIP

Preached by Gregory W. Lee
23 April 2006

I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Mark 11:12-17

12. The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry.
13. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs.
14. Then he said to the tree, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." And his disciples heard him say it.
15. On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves,
16. and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts.
17. And as he taught them, he said, "Is it not written: "`My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations' ? But you have made it `a den of robbers.' "

-- I have a confession to make this morning -- I think I may be on the verge of a major midlife crisis -- maybe not a crisis -- but definitely a reordering of my life
-- I don't know what's going on, but lately I've been filled with a restlessness -- a hunger -- for something more -- I guess it started a few years ago, but lately, it has become almost a burning desire -- I don't know -- maybe it's just a symptom of getting older -- maybe it's just a symptom of being at my current job too long -- I don't know -- but I am feeling a desire for more -- for more excitement -- for more challenge -- for more danger
-- I've been at Moody for eight years now and I've basically built the wildlife program there from the ground up -- in those eight years we've done an enormous amount of work -- we've gotten a lot of good things accomplished -- and it's been recognized by others -- not to toot my own horn here, but for the last three award periods, we have received national awards for our program
-- but now, I find myself in a position where we've accomplished about all we can do -- and we are moving into a maintenance type phase -- where we're just keeping what we started going -- continuing on with our wildlife studies and our management but not doing anything new -- not doing anything challenging -- not doing anything exciting -- life at work has gotten somewhat dull -- somewhat routine
-- I think that's what drives a lot of midlife crises -- I think it comes from looking up one day and seeing that everything has become routine -- it's the same thing day in and day out -- you get up -- you go to work -- you come home -- you eat supper -- you watch a little t.v. -- you go to bed -- and you start over the next day -- just the same-old same-old day in and day out
-- I don't think God made us for the routine -- I don't think God intended for our lives to be filled with the same-old same-old day in and day out -- I think God created us with a desire to be challenged and to be involved in doing exciting things for Him -- and I think this desire is what is causing my current bout of restlessness
-- so, maybe, midlife crises are really not bad things -- I know they can be bad -- I know a lot of men and women use these times to leave their families and their responsibilities and go off in ungodly directions -- but maybe that's because they don't really understand what's going on -- I wonder if these midlife crises aren't stirrings of the soul that God sends us to get us out of our ruts -- out of our routines -- and into the wild adventure that He has called us into
-- this could be one explanation for why our seminaries and other pastoral schools are mostly filled with middle-aged men and women -- folks who have responded to the call of God to go in the ministry and who have left successful careers behind to follow Him where ever He leads -- think about a lot of the men and women in the Bible who have done great things for the Lord -- with only a few exceptions, all of them started their career with God in mid-life or even later
-- so, maybe midlife crises are good things

-- as I've been thinking about this subject over the last several months, it occurred to me that our churches and denominations wouldn't hurt from a good midlife crisis or two -- it is very easy for us to get caught up in the same-old same-old in our churches -- in our programs and activities -- in our ministries -- and especially in our worship services
-- we can find ourselves trapped in the humdrum existence of just doing church -- living out the routine and staying in a rut as we simply go through the motions of worshiping God and ministering to other people
-- such was the case with the nation of Israel in Jesus' day -- they had gotten so wrapped up in the routines of the temple worship -- in making sure they followed the liturgy and the law to the letter -- that they missed connecting with God in any real way -- the routine replaced the relationship
-- that is the setting of this passage from Mark

II. Scripture Lesson -- Mark 11:12-17
-- according to Mark, Jesus had just entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and went to the temple, but because it was late, He and His disciples left and went out to spend the night in Bethany -- a small town located about two miles outside of Jerusalem on the eastern slopes of the Mount of Olives
-- they got up early the next morning -- evidently before breakfast -- and headed for the temple where Jesus was going to preach and teach -- look back at verse 12

12. The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry.
13. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs.
14. Then he said to the tree, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." And his disciples heard him say it.

-- now this passage is one of those situations where there is both a literal and a prophetic intepretation -- Mark tells us that Jesus was hungry -- and I believe He was literally hungry -- I think He and the disciples had gotten up and left Bethany without getting anything to eat and He got hungry along the way
-- so when Jesus saw a fig tree in the distance, He walked up to it to see if it had any fruit -- here was this fig tree -- full of leaves glistening in the rising sun -- if any tree should have had fruit, it should have been this one -- it looked like it should have fruit, but Mark tells us that when Jesus got up there and searched, there wasn't a single fig on the whole tree -- so Jesus cursed the tree which eventually caused it to wither
-- but Mark didn't just include this passage in the text to let us know what happened to Jesus with the fig tree -- this passage foreshadows what is about to occur in the temple in regards to the religious practices of the Israelites

-- you see, not only was Jesus physically hungry, He was spiritually hungry -- He was hungry for the presence of the Father -- so He was headed to the place where God's presence resided -- remember in those days that God's presence resided in the Holy of Holies and that all worship centered around the temple in Jerusalem -- Jesus was headed for the place that should have been able to satisfy His hunger
-- but, when He got there, it was just like the situation with the fig tree -- the worship in the temple had all the outward appearances of being a fruitful place -- it had all the appearances of being a place where God was worshiped and where His presence was made manifest through the worship of the people -- but it wasn't
-- Israel was just like the fig tree -- it had the outward leaves of a God-given religion -- it looked like it should have fruit -- but it didn't -- there was no spiritual fruit to be found -- that is why God said in Isaiah 29:13, "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men."
-- worship for the Israelites had become routine -- they had quit worshiping God with their hearts and had substituted a routine, man-made religion in its place -- a religion not based on a relationship with their Creator but based on rules taught by men -- worship for them had become the same-old same-old with nothing much happening -- people came to the temple and followed their rules -- they made their daily sacrifices -- they made their daily offerings -- they uttered their required prayers -- they followed the worship bulletin to the letter -- but that was all that was accomplished
-- since their heart wasn't in worship, God wasn't in worship -- God tells us that if we draw near to Him through worship, then He will draw near to us -- the Israelites weren't drawing near to God -- their prayers and offerings and sacrifices were just offered out of obligation -- just offered because that was next on the worship bulletin -- it didn't really mean anything -- it was just something they did because they were Jewish -- and, so, the presence of God was missing from their midst
-- rather than living on the edge like they did in their early days, when God parted the Red Sea to bring them out of Egypt and brought water from a rock for them and sent manna and quail from Heaven -- the Israelites had gotten caught up in doing the same thing the same way for so long that they never even looked for anything to happen any more -- they had forgotten the meaning of worship -- they had forgotten the heart of worship -- and, as a result, their worship had grown stale and their religion had grown barren
-- Jesus went to the temple looking for spiritual food -- for spiritual fruit -- but He found none -- and so He took steps to make it fruitful -- to make it bear power -- once again
-- look back at verse 15

15. On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves,
16. and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts.
17. And as he taught them, he said, "Is it not written: "`My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations' ? But you have made it `a den of robbers.' "

-- in these verses, there are two things that Jesus does to make the season right for the temple to bear fruit once again

A. Purity
-- the first thing He does to restore the temple is to purify it -- when Jesus got to the temple, He found it filled with money-changers and merchants
-- you see, in order to make an offering at the temple -- whether it was an animal sacrifice or a financial offering -- it had to be acceptable in the eyes of the priests -- the priests wouldn't take foreign money -- so anyone who came in from another land had to exchange their money for acceptable money -- over time, this developed into quite a business -- money-changers set up in the temple itself and would exchange money at an exorbitant price -- making a sizable profit from those who were going in to make an offering to God
-- in the same way, there were rules about the animals that could be sacrificed -- God had said they couldn't be blemished in any way -- and so when someone brought an offering to the temple, the priests would examine it and, if it had a blemish, force them to buy a clean animal from the merchants -- the merchants were ready and willing to sell clean animals to worshipers, for a tidy profit, of course
-- Jesus came in and saw what was going on -- how these money-changers and merchants were using the house of God to make a profit -- and He overturned their tables and rebuked them for turning God's house into a den of robbers -- the priests had allowed in these profit-mongers who filled the temple with wordly things and who distracted from the true worship of God
-- as Matthew Henry says in his commentary, "Those who allow vain wordly thoughts to lodge within them when they are at their devotions turn the house of prayer into a market -- they that make long prayers for a pretense to devour widow's houses turn it into a den of robbers" -- in other words, worship at the temple looked like that that would be acceptable to God -- sacrifices were made -- the proper money was offered -- righteous-sounding prayers were given -- but it was done more for the sake of making a profit than for connecting with God
-- so Jesus came in and purified the temple by getting rid of the worldly distractions and the false rules that were keeping people away from a true relationship with the Father

B. Prayer
-- after Jesus had purified the temple, the next thing He did was to restore the conduit of relationship, prayer -- it is through prayer that we connect most with our heavenly Father -- it is through prayer that we worship God and that He speaks to us -- it is through prayer that we form a lasting relationship with God
-- once the temple was purified, Jesus sought to restore the purpose of the temple as a house of prayer -- as a place where true worship was offered and true relationships with the Father were sought
-- Jesus knew that the only way God's presence was going to come in power in the temple was through the establishment of prayer -- not ritualistic prayer -- not rote repetitions of many words -- but heart-felt offerings of love and worship to the Creator
-- Jesus said that the temple should be known as a house of prayer for all nations

C. Power
-- immediately after Jesus purified the temple and sanctified it through prayer, God's presence began to be felt again and spiritual fruit began to fall upon those gathered there like manna from Heaven
-- in Matthew's account of this event, Matthew records that immediately after Jesus ran out the merchants and money-changers and immediately after prayers began to be offered, the blind and the lame came to Him at the temple and He healed them
-- where before there was no spiritual fruit -- where before there was only routine and meaningless worship -- now there was power from the Lord God Almighty
-- once the temple had been purified and sanctified, then Jesus allowed His power to minister to those who were gathered there

III. Closing
-- as we close this message today, remember these three points to energizing worship in your life and in this church and in our denomination -- Purity -- Prayer -- Power
-- in order to bring about changes in our spiritual lives, we must first purify ourselves and our worship -- we must bathe ourselves in prayer -- and then, and only then, will God's power fall upon us
-- let me ask you a question: -- are you connecting with God through your worship or are you simple showing up and going through the routines?
-- if you don't feel that you are reaching God through your worship -- if you don't feel His presence in your life as you seek His face, then follow the steps of Jesus in this passage -- Purify yourself -- Pray and worship God with all your heart and all your mind and all your strength -- and expect His power to fall upon you
-- right now, if there is something in your life that is hindering your worship of God -- your relationship with God -- whether its sin or worldly distractions or just giving in to the humdrum existence of everyday life -- then I would invite you to come to the altar and give it up to Him -- purify yourself, and pray to God for His power and presence to fall upon you today
-- let us pray