Why did Jesus flip the tables in the temple? In Matthew 21:12-22, Jesus drives out the money changers and calls the temple "a den of thieves." Dr. Toby Holt explains why this anger was holy, not sinful. The temple was meant to be a house of prayer, but merchants had turned it into a marketplace, gouging worshipers. Jesus overturned their tables and healed the blind and lame while children shouted "Hosanna." The next morning He cursed a fruitless fig tree, which withered at once — a picture of Israel: full of religious leaves but no real fruit. Jesus then taught about the power of faith and prayer.

Questions this study answers:

1. Who were the money changers, and what were they doing? They exchanged currency and sold sacrifice animals inside the temple at unfair rates, turning a place of prayer into a place of profit.

2. How does this connect to the cursed fig tree? The tree had leaves but no fruit, just as Israel had the appearance of religion without the reality. Its withering pictured judgment on empty worship.

3. What should God's house be? A house of prayer. Holt urges believers to recover prayer as the true power of the church, not show or profit. "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer,' but you have made it a 'den of thieves.'" — Matthew 21:13 (NKJV)

Dr. Toby Holt is President of New Geneva Theological Seminary, and his sermons have been downloaded more than 1.9 million times on SermonAudio. Find more verse-by-verse Bible teaching at newgeneva.org; support this ministry at newgeneva.org/give.

In the days prior to His crucifixion, Jesus entered the temple in Jerusalem,

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and instead of finding prayer and worship in the temple courts,

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He found commercialization and greed, and this made Him angry.

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In today's study of Matthew 22, we'll see what He did in response,

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and the specific reason that He did it.

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In the field of criminology, there are three factors

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to help one identify the nature and the occurrence of a crime.

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These are action, the action that's taken place,

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number two, the location,

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and number three, the motivation of he who has committed the action.

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Now, the action is the obvious one.

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If a man has killed another man,

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then a criminologist can stand back from that and go,

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all right, it appears that a crime has occurred.

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However, the action in and of itself is not sufficient.

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You also have to look at the location.

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What if the killing of one man of another man occurs on a battlefield?

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furthermore, what if the man's motivation in perpetuating this killing was to save his

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comrades? Well, in that case, it would not be identified as a crime. In fact, it would be

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heroic. So here's the thing. Action, location, and motivation all matter. Now, as we come to

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Matthew 21, we have this scene where Jesus is angry. Jesus is upset. Jesus understands that

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something has gone wrong, and it's because there is a confluence of action, location, and motivation

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that are all incriminating for those participants involved. Now, the first is the action. You have

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men who are extorting other men. You have professing believers who are extorting other

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professing believers, and we'll explain that more in a few moments. Secondarily, you have the

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location. This isn't just happening out in some hamlet somewhere. It's not happening out by Galilee.

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this is happening in the temple. It's not only extortion of one set of men by another set of men,

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but it's occurring in the house of God. So location is relevant. Number three, there's a motivation of

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those who are doing it. They're extorting other men, not because they sense that to be faithful,

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but because they're selfish and they're greedy. That's their motivation. They're in the house of

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God where you think there'd be a lot of worship and prayer going on, and instead there's guys

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extorting others to fill their coffers. And Jesus walks in and he sees this go down, and he gets

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angry. He gets mad, and he begins to toss the tables of the participants. This is quite the

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response. You don't see this too often. In fact, you really don't see an occurrence like this much

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anywhere else. If you ask someone, tell me, is there any time in the Bible where Jesus got mad?

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This is where people go to. So why this? Dear heaven, do you know how much evil he saw? Do you

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know how many times he was standing with Pharisees, accusing them, and everything was going crazy

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around him? Do you know how much wickedness and depravity he observed? Given all that he observed,

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why is this the instance, this occasion, the time that he seems to lose it in terms of his emotional

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response? Why this time? What were the money changers doing that was so bad? What were the

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dove sellers doing that was so wrong that gentle, loving, patient, kind, forbearing Jesus loses it?

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What were they doing? Well, we're going to find out. If you would, let's look at verse 12. We'll

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spend a certain part of today's text looking at the money changers, and then we're going to move

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into the study of the fig tree. You've probably never heard them condensed. I'm convinced that

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they should be, and I'll explain why as we go. Verse 12, then Jesus went into the temple of God,

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and he drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and he overturned the tables of

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the money changers, and the seats of those who sold doves. All right, let's step back again for

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a moment and remember the context. Well, as we said before, the context is that Jesus has just

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engaged in what we call the triumphal entry. This is at the outset of his Passion Week. He's coming

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to Jerusalem to die, and as he rode into town on the donkey to start his Passion Week, there's all

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manner of hosannas going on. There's the palm branches and the like, and all sorts of declarations.

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Now, the people didn't know what they were doing.

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That's going to be made clear in today's text.

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The people didn't understand what they were doing when they were saying Hosanna.

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They wanted a Messiah.

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They didn't want this Messiah.

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And they had realized that days later when they would proclaim crucify him, crucify him.

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Whatever the case, what happens is you have the triumphal entry.

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He rides into town in the back of the donkey.

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The palm branches have been waving.

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And where does he go?

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He goes to the temple.

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He goes to the temple because that's where everyone was going.

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You understand that at the start of the Passover week,

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the whole reason he was going there is because everyone was going there.

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All of Israel was traveling.

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Those who could, I'm sure that Galilee still had some folks left,

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but those who could, generally speaking, were making a pilgrimage,

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a pilgrimage by which millions of people were heading into Jerusalem.

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So he's there with just tons of other people,

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and the majority of them, at some juncture during the travels,

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are going to go to the temple.

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That's the object, is to go to the temple for the Passover celebration.

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Now, as part of the Passover celebration, what were the people going to do?

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Well, if you remember, right, like way back in the time of Moses,

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when they slaughtered the Passover lamb,

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they put the blood of the lamb on the doorpost and lentil,

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and the angel of death passed them over as he slaughtered the Egyptians.

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Well, ever since, ever since, they had celebrated Passover

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by seeking out this perfect, unblemished lamb amongst all the lambs of Israel.

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They would all seek out the best lamb that they could,

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the perfect, unblemished lamb, to sacrifice at Passover.

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So here you have everyone coming into town, coming in to celebrate Passover, but they have a need.

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And the need is what?

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Well, they've got to have a lamb.

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Most of them have been traveling from upstate, so to speak.

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They weren't hauling around the perfect lamb all the way.

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So when they got there, they looked for sacrifices.

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Lamb Selection Day is the day that Jesus showed up.

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When everyone is saying Hosanna, the Lamb of God is coming right in the city while people are looking for lambs.

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Now, let's say that you couldn't afford a lamb.

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What were your options then?

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well scripture has your back scripture has the answer and the answer is this you could sacrifice

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a dove a turtle dove as an alternative that was acceptable practice for those who were poured to

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sacrifice a dove instead so that was what a lot of folks did but the same issue applied if you

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would come from up north or way down south or what have you you just didn't take all your animals to

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be slaughtered all that distance in order to kill them there so what did you do well you arrived in

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Jerusalem and you went around and you purchased. Again, you either sought out the perfect lamb or

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in the case of doves, you sought out the dove. And once again, where there was a need, people

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found a way to fill that need. You had dove salesmen. I don't know what kind of job that is,

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but you had dove salesmen. And the dove salesmen would go where? They'd go into the temple in order

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to sell the doves to the people who wanted to sacrifice the doves. Now, so far, so good. There's

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really nothing wrong about doves being sold and so forth. But as we start to drill into where it

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was going down, and then some of the logistics of how it was taking place, you stand back and go,

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all right, there's something shifty taking place, and here's what it is. Have you ever gone to a

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ballpark? You go to a baseball stadium, what have you, and you say, I'm feeling kind of peckish,

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kind of hungry. I think I'll get a hot dog. Now, when you go get a hot dog and soda at the ballpark,

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do you expect to pay normal prices or inflated prices? Not just inflated, but super inflated,

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you know, eight, nine bucks for a thing of soda, you know, eight bucks for a hot dog. The level

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inflation is just crazy when you go to the ballpark. Well, that's what was going on in

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Jerusalem. You'd have the dove salesmen and everyone else gouging the poor pilgrims who'd

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traveled days just to get there to the temple. They're being gouged for these transactions. Now,

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not only that, but when people came to the temple, they were to bring the temple tax.

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Now, when we hear the word tax, we rebel to that right away, but it is a biblical precedent.

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Nothing wrong with them making a contribution.

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However, let's say that you're coming from one of these paganized cities,

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or let's say that you're in one of these cities where the Roman currency is dominant, with Caesar on the coin.

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Could you walk into the temple and just plunk down your Caesar money and have it be accepted?

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No. So what did you have to do?

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Well, there was a currency exchange.

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It's kind of like when you're at the airport and you've just come from Europe or Greece,

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and you come to America and you exchange the currency

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because your Greek money won't do you any good here.

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Same principle applies.

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People had to bring their currency from wherever they were

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and had to exchange it for that which would be acceptable payment

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for the temple tax.

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Now, can you guess what happened when they exchanged the money?

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Well, there were people there that were willing to exchange the money.

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They were called money changers.

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The ones who were about to get tossed out on their keister here.

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The money changers.

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Well, what were the money changers doing?

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Well, the money changers were exchanging the funds,

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but they were doing it for give or take six percent on each transaction. And they weren't

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doing this like down the street from the temple or outside the walls of Jerusalem, but where were

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they doing it? In the temple courts. Not necessarily in the Holy of Holies, so to speak, but in the

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temple courts. In fact, the whole temple courts were filled with commercialization. You would

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think you'd go to the temple and there'd be people in devout prayer and adoration and praise, maybe

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some psalms being sung and the like, you'd think it's the temple of God. You'd think that's what

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you'd see. Jesus comes into town, he walks into the temple, and he sees the exact opposite.

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At the time, just prior to the Passover, it's vast commercialization. You know, we complain

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about the commercialization of Christmas. This was the commercialization of everything wrong

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and the abdication of everything right. Jesus says, this is supposed to be a house of prayer.

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This is supposed to be a house of prayer, and everywhere I look, there's greedy people profiting

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on poor people and on pilgrims and the like. It's a commercial enterprise. The house of God has been

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turned into a place for greedy sinners to get wealthy. And so you notice he doesn't chase out

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the pilgrims. Who does he chase out? Chase out the money changers, the vendors, those who are

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there to make a profit. People came to worship God. People came to adore God. They came to

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sacrifice that pointed to him. And while they were trying to do so, there was people getting rich off

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the efforts. And so he determines to act. The action we see there in verse 12 as he tosses the

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tables, upsets the seats of the people selling doves. All right, let's look at verse 13. Now

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Jesus is going to explain again his rationale for us a little bit more. Verse 13, and he said to

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them. It is written, my house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den

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of thieves. Let me ask you a question. Does anyone know what the last book in the Old Testament is?

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What's the last book in the Old Testament? Malachi. Now, in Malachi 3, you can look at it a little bit

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later if you like, but Malachi 3, there's a prophecy that points forward to this day and to

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this occurrence and to what's going on in the temple. In Malachi 3, you see a prophecy of two

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things. Number one, a prophecy that John the Baptist would come, but not only would John the

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Baptist come, but he would point to someone else who would go into the temple and get mad. Here's

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the prophecy in Malachi chapter 3. Behold, behold, I send my messenger and he will prepare the way

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before me. This is a reference to John the Baptist, the last prophet, the last great prophet who would

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point to Jesus. All the other prophets pointed to Jesus by the writing of the pen. He pointed with

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his finger, said, this is the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world. So here in Malachi 3,

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we see this prophecy. Behold, I'll send my messenger, my prophet, my ambassador, and he will

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prepare the way before me, which is exactly what John did. And then it goes on to say this, and then

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then the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come into his temple. I'll send my messenger to prepare

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the way before me, and then the Lord who you seek will suddenly come into his temple. Even

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though it's messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of

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hosts. But who can endure it when he comes? Who can stand when he appears? He's like a refiner's

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fire like launderer's soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. He will purify

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the sons of Levi. He will purge them as gold and silver that they meant offered to the Lord and

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offering in righteousness. Malachi 3 declares that a day will come when suddenly the people

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who've been expecting the Messiah to show up, who've been anticipating and desiring God to

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send the Messiah for centuries, a day would come when he would show. The messenger would come first,

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then the Son of God would show in the temple. Suddenly he would be there. But Malachi 3 says

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that when he comes, when he shows up, he will be like a fire's fire. Who can endure it? He will

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come and his reaction upon arriving in the temple will be one of refinement and even wrath is what

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we see here. And the reason he'd be angry and there'd need to be refining is because of what

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he would find when he arrived. Scripture says he would come to the temple, he would find it

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tainted sinful and so it'd be time for refinement to occur well in today's text here in matthew we

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see this event that was anticipated malachi 3 fulfilled when jesus suddenly shows up in the

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temple he's suddenly there there he is and what's his reaction upon showing up does he go in and say

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oh my people ah let's group hug does he do that no he comes in and the first thing he does is he

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looks around, and when he sees what he sees, he says, let the refinement begin. And you can see

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he just goes over and starts throwing the tables. This is gentle, loving, peaceful, gracious,

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forbearing Jesus. And he's tossing the tables, and he's chasing the people, selling the doves.

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Malachi 3 anticipated that this very day would come. With that said, after Jesus is done chasing

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them out and upending the tables, and after everyone's standing back and aghast as what

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has just happened, how does Jesus then explain the crime that's just gone down? How does he explain

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the crime in verse 13? Well, he says this. He says, my father's house is intended to be a house

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of prayer. See all those pilgrims, all the people who've traveled miles and miles and days to be

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here? Is this what they came for, the commercialization they could have found at home,

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or did they come to find something better? Well, you know the answer. They came to find

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an opportunity to worship God in his own house, to pray to God, maybe to sing the Psalms. And

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instead, what they found when they came in was something that just kneecapped their faith,

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so to speak, or kneecapped their intentions. They come in hoping to see one thing,

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and instead they find something different. They find a den of thieves. At some point in your life,

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you may have entered into a church somewhere, and you may have been shocked by what you encountered.

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You may have said, this is commercialization. This is not the way this is supposed to be.

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There's something about what's happening here that doesn't jive with what the book says.

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Well, this is what is going on in this case, but to a greater magnitude by far.

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Jesus looks to hear the Psalms.

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He doesn't hear them.

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Instead, he hears the carnival barkers.

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He looks around to see penitent people.

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Instead, he sees pompous Pharisees.

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And so he's angry.

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In Jerusalem, the worship was drowned out by the commerce.

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Side note.

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Do you think that's the last time that would occur in church history?

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Ask a man named Martin Luther whether commercialization ever found its way into the church of his age there in the 16th century.

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Well, you know the answer if you know the story.

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You know the answer is that in the time of Luther, that Rome, for all of its few strengths and all its great weaknesses,

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one of the things that they were doing especially wrong was that they were selling indulgences.

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They were telling people that Aunt Hilda is dead, and if you loved Aunt Hilda, well, here's the thing.

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Aunt Hilda didn't have her act together when she died.

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she's probably in purgatory, and if she's in purgatory, she's probably facing a certain

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amount of discipline, and it's an unpleasant thing, and if you love Aunt Hilda, don't you

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love Aunt Hilda? If you love Aunt Hilda, you can do something about it. When a coin in the coffer

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rings, a soul from purgatory springs. This is just one example of many, but the point is

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commercialization had taken over. Luther looks around, he sees the same things. He sees people

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plunking money into coffers and then climbing up steps on their bloody kneecaps. And he looks at

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all this and he says, this isn't what this is supposed to be. We turn the church, so to speak,

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into a charade without a dime of true religion in it. In a sense, the anger of Luther mirrors

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the anger of Christ. You know, back 20 years ago, when we had this thing called TV that didn't have

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streaming, I would turn on TV in seminary and, you know, late at night, I'm studying hard and

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You know, I'm up late at night, changing diapers and things like that, and I'd turn on the TV.

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Well, back then, you just watched, you know, what you watched.

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At 2 a.m., there's not a lot of good options.

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But one of the things that occupies a whole lot of television landscape at that hour of the night were the televangelists.

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Now, of course, I'm in seminary, so any time I turn a channel and there's someone saying something about Jesus,

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you know, I'm attuned to what's going on, what did I find?

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Was I well-fed by these televangelists at 2 in the morning?

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Well, you know, if you've ever watched them yourselves, you know not so much.

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Instead, what did I find?

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I found guys on the television telling me to touch my screen,

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send them my money, and receive the blessing.

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Maybe they'd send me a prayer cloth that they had touched,

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and if I touch it too, I'd be extra blessed.

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This is commercialization.

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It took place in Rome.

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It took place in Christ's time.

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It takes place in our own day, and it's silly.

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We should not have this.

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Christian bookstores.

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I think it was R.C. Sproul who said this,

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so if you don't like it, you can blame him.

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But Christian bookstores.

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Dear heavens, do you think Jesus, if he walked in

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and saw some of the merchandise being sold there

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and some of the books that are being perpetuated,

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would he walk in there and do you think he would say,

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ah, amen and amen, or would he tilt over,

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would he throw down some of these racks?

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I think you know the answer.

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The commercialization that occurred back then

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has never really stopped.

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There will always be people looking to make a dime

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off of hurting the folks.

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And it breaks the heart of God to see it.

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These people were extorting people,

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and they were doing it in the house of God

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to pad their own pockets.

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and you wonder why Jesus got angry.

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All right, we've talked about his anger now.

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Let's move forward.

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He doesn't stay angry forever.

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Thank goodness he doesn't.

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Let's look at verses 14 through 17.

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Verse 14.

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Then the blind and the lame came to him in the temple,

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and he healed them.

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But when the chief priests and the scribes

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saw the wonderful things that he did,

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and the children crying out in the temple

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saying Hosanna to the son of David,

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they were indignant, and they said to him, Do you hear what they are saying? And Jesus said to them,

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Yes, have you not read? Out of the mouths of babes and nursing infants you have perfected

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praise. Then he left them, he went out of the city to Bethany, and he lodged there.

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All right, all the bad, naughty, nasty stuff has been going on in the temple courts. All the

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commercialization, all the stuff that made Christ's blood boil, have been going on for years in the

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temple. Now, what have the Pharisees been doing about it? The religious leaders, the scribes,

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the priests, what had they been doing about it? Apparently nothing. Apparently they've been sitting

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on their hands. There may even have been a system of kickbacks by which they wanted these individuals

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there. You ever wonder why people do what they do? It's because they want to, and there's usually

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reasons why they want to do it. The Pharisees, the priests, the scribes, the leaders had evidently

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endorsed these practices. And yet, when the Messiah shows up and he heals blind people and

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heals the lame, and when small children have the temerity to praise him for it, these guys who sat

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on their hands when all the crime was going down, oh, at this point, what do they do? At this point,

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they raise up, and they're indignant. At this point, at this point, after healings and miracles

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have taken place and children are praising the healer, that's when they decide to lose it. That's

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when they say, no, no, no, no, no, no. Bring back the money changers and the dove salesmen and all

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those guys. We like them. You, not so much. You, the guy healing, doing miracles and life, not so

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much. There's this cruel irony. The Pharisees had this uncanny knack of upending that which is good

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and that which was evil. The amount of times they would accuse Jesus, who had just done something

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marvelous, of doing something wicked. It's virtually every occurrence that they're there.

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Now, at this point, Jesus, he's come into the city. He's come to the temple. Everything has

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just gone dreadfully. He hasn't seen an ounce of righteousness, so to speak, here. Outside of the

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babes, outside the kids, but amongst the generations that were supposed to be the light

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bearers, the torch bearers, that when the Messiah showed up, they would lend him their light.

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Amongst the generations that were supposed to be anticipating him and then embracing him when he

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showed up, what he found was faithlessness, overt rebellion, which is why when Jesus had come to the

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city just prior and stared at it from the hillside, what was his reaction? He wept over it because he

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knew what was going to happen. He knew that they hated him. He knew that they would kill him.

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He knew that this was a first century Gomorrah, a place that had just lost the plot, was scarcely

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a righteous person in it. On the day the long-awaited Messiah entered the temple, his heart

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was broken over what he found. The fig tree, so to speak, in God's vineyard was devoid of any fruit.

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Now, speaking of fig trees, let's look at verses 18 and 19. Verse 18. Now in the morning, as he

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returned to the city, he was hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the road, he came to it, but he found

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nothing on it but leaves. And so he said to it, let no fruit grow on you ever again. And immediately

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the fig tree withered away. All right, what's going on with this? You read this, especially

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if you read this without any real context or understanding of the faith, you look at this and

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just seems like Jesus is kind of arbitrary. Hey, figs, I like me some figs in the morning. Let me

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get a fig. Oh, no figs. Well, curse this tree. And he goes on his way. We look at that and say,

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yeah, that seems kind of like an emotional thing to do. We look at that and we don't make a lot

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of sense of it. But there is sense. Once again, let's go back to the book of Hosea, another Old

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Testament prophet. In Hosea chapter 9, we see that the fig tree represents something. The fig tree

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is representative of something else. When you read this text about Jesus cursing a fig tree,

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eats a curse on something else of which the fig tree typifies. Back in Hosea chapter 9, God said

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this. He says, I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness. I saw your fathers as the first fruits

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on the fig tree in its first season. This is one reference. There's several others we could choose

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from in which the fig tree is typified for the people of God. Now, figs were commonplace throughout

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Israel. There was figs that grew largely in one season, but certain fig varieties grew in other

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seasons as well, and fig trees were just about everywhere that you looked in this region. With

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that said, as we look at the Old Testament scriptures, we can see that when the fig tree

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comes up, it's usually not referring to an actual tree with actual figs. It's a suggestive of God's

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people. Now, let's talk about God's people for a moment. Were they fruitful? Well, no, we've just

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established. They were not. They were all leaves, no figs. That's what Israel was. At 10,000 feet,

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if you look down at Israel and say, well, what a pious group they are. I can tell they're pious

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because they have a temple. I can tell they're pious because they have priests in tall pointy

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hats. Look, they're sacrificing things to their God. They sure must be pious. They had a lot of

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leaves that looked religious, but no fruit. That's what Jesus found when he actually, not from 10,000

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feet, but from 10 inches, went into the temple and looked around. Israel wasn't bearing any fruit at

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all. Israel had been called here in Hosea 9, God's special fig tree, right? God's special fig tree,

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the first fruits and the like. But Jesus had just gone into the temple just the day before

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and found no figs, found a completely fruitless lot from the priests just on down. Again, there

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was undoubtedly, like Simeon, there was undoubtedly others across the scope of Christ's life in Israel

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that were faithful, certainly his own disciples and the like, but it was a vast minority or a tiny

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minority of the whole. Just like this barren fig tree he encounters here on the side of the road,

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Israel was all appearance and no fruit. And in the same way as Jesus approaching the fig tree

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looking for some nourishment, what had happened to the pilgrims who'd gone in the temple just the

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day before. They found no nourishment to be had. They left hungry. Well, that's Jesus' encounter

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with the fig tree outside the city walls. He looks to this tree. He sees its leaves. The leaves

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suggest, the way you knew that a fig tree had figs was based on the leaves. The quantity of leaves

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suggested the quantity of fruit. So he sees from a distance this particular tree that should be

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fruitful, and he comes on it, and there's nothing. If there had been a fig, he would have eaten that,

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but there was none it was all leaves and no fruit and so what does he do well he curses it but he's

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not just cursing a single tree in the middle east you understand this it's not about this one

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naughty tree this is a curse that is being placed upon those that the tree typified he says let no

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fruit grow on you ever again. Again, this is an object lesson, which Jesus did all the time.

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Jesus used parables and object lessons all the time to explain what he meant, and this is the

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same thing. He curses this tree because it is fruitless. Now, in Paul's writings, in Romans

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chapter 10 and 11, Paul talks about Israel. Remember, he talks about Israel. Paul wasn't

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Israelite. Paul talks about Israel, and he says this. He explains the curse further in Romans 10.

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He says, Israel has not obtained what it seeks, but the elect have obtained it and the rest were

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blinded. This is the curse. The rest were blinded. Just as it's written, God has given them a spirit

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of stupor, eyes that should not see and ears that should not hear to this very day. David says,

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let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a recompense to them.

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Let their eyes be darkened so that they do not see and bow down their back always. I say then,

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have they stumbled so that they should fall? Certainly not. But through their fall, to provoke

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them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. These are references to the very curse

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that Jesus had talked about and that the whole Old Testament anticipated. His rejection wasn't

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a surprise to Jesus. It wasn't a surprise to God. There was an anticipation of this rejection.

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And through the Old Testament prophets and then Paul in the New Testament, it's explained. The

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rejection of the light they've been giving of the son of god that came into their midst their

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crucifixion of this one it is to their shame but it is to the benefit of all the gentiles

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because to this one true tree as israel gentiles now would be engrafted in and the good news for

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israel is this that in romans chapter 11 paul says that although they're cursed although certainly

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all this has befallen them as a function of what they did and the rejection of jesus although

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that's true. God is not done with them. And that is true to this day. God is not done with Israel.

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That's the focus of another sermon. All right, let's look at our final verses, verses 20 through

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22. And when the disciples saw it, meaning when they saw this fig tree wither up, they marveled.

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And they said, how? How did the fig tree wither away so soon? So Jesus answered and said to them,

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assuredly i say to you if you have faith and you do not doubt you will not only do what was done

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to the fig tree but also you can say to the mountain which would have been the mountain

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of olives that's where they would have been at but you say to this mountain be removed to be

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cast into the sea and it will be done whatever you ask in prayer believing you will receive

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all right in verse 19 jesus curses the fig tree and the response of the fig tree is to wither

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under the curse and not like you know far down the road but speedily now the speed with which

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it withered, shocks the disciples. They're like, wow, that was fast how that went down. Jesus cursed

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it, and it was like withered almost immediately. Now, here's the thing. Do you remember, we'll study

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this in a few weeks, but do you remember the story in Matthew 24 when Jesus and his disciples, they

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would leave the temple, and they would go outside the temple, the same temple filled with all these

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commercialization, and the disciples, they probably knew that Jesus didn't like the commercial stuff,

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so what do they choose to brag about? They say, well, at least it's beautiful. This is an impressive

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building. Jesus says, you probably don't like some of the stuff that's gone on inside of it,

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but the temple, come on, the temple's awesome. Look how strong, how sturdy it is. Well, what does

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Jesus tell them? He says, within a generation, the very thing you're bragging about and you think is

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awesome and strong and sturdy is going to be cast down in such a way that not a stone will be left

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on another stone speedily would be its demise, faster than they could expect. They thought this

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would stand forever. The Herodian temple, this pillar of strength there in the Middle East,

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they thought it would stand forever. And Jesus says, no, like the fig tree, you won't believe

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how fast it's going to wither. You won't believe how fast this temple is going to go down. Just

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like the fig tree, the temple's demise was imminent. Before the very eyes of some of the

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standing there, they would see this happen. Everything as we wrap up this morning,

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everything that we're seeing in this chapter and in many other chapters we've looked at

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is this picture of a Savior, a Messiah who came to the very people who should have been expecting

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them and instead was rejected at every turn. And that rejection would have consequences.

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Do you know how many times Jesus tells the people what's about to happen in a generation?

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We're going to get to that in Matthew 24 when we talk about the Olivet Discourse

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and all the destruction that would occur.

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But Jesus didn't leave them shocked that it would happen.

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He regularly, consistently talks about what's going to happen.

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And this fig tree is a picture of that.

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Its demise would be speedily just as the demise of the temple would be.

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Judgment was coming soon.

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With that said, I want you to notice something from the last verse, verse 22.

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Earlier in today's reading, we saw that one of the things that hurt the heart of Christ most

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was that the house of prayer, the temple, had been turned into a house of commerce.

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And because of that, the temple had no future.

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It would be destroyed.

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A prayerless temple is like a fruitless fig tree.

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It's just a husk, just a shell, just a mirage, just a facade of what it otherwise should be.

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With that said, what does he say about prayer in this last verse?

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Well, he tells his disciples that the very thing that the Jews had thrown out of the temple,

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the house of prayer, meh.

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How about house of dove salesmen, right?

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They had done that.

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the very thing that they had kicked out was the praying, or at least that's what he identifies as

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the singular most important thing. They had taken the house of prayer and turned it into a den of

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thieves. And yet, at the very end of this selection, at the end of this passage, verse 22, he says,

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now you, my disciples, I don't want you to make the same mistake. I don't want you to miss the

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point. The Jews there in that temple that's about to go down, they missed the point. They forgot

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about the house of prayer. They forgot that which God has given us as the means by which the world

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turns or mountains can be cast into the sea, but you don't forget it. You don't forget it. He says

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faith can move mountains. Now across the history from that point forward, there's no record of

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anyone literally praying a mountain into the ocean, but it wasn't the point. Again, object lesson,

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object lesson, object lesson. His point is this, that your faith through prayer is capable of more

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than you possibly understand. It is capable of doing more strong and oppressive things than you

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possibly can articulate. People who pray for great things see great results. It might not be the very

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result that they desired when they prayed, but that doesn't mean that God doesn't listen or doesn't

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respond in some significant way. People who pray for great things see great results. In our day,

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churches are looking for secrets to growth and keys to success and the like. There's all manner

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of books that'll tell them how to attain it. The keys, the secrets, the 10 steps, and so forth.

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pragmatic ways to achieve their ends. With that said, prayer. Prayer is what moves the heart and

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the hands of God. And as we as a church round the bend into the next year for all the amazing things

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God is doing in our midst, next year my hope, my desire is that prayer in a corporate sense would

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become more of a centerpiece of our activities. If that should happen, watch out. Let's pray.