Mark 11:27-33 - The Authority of Jesus

An alternative title I gave to this sermon was “Jesus—Lord of the Temple.” This is the last of four sermons from Mark 11, four sermons dealing with Jesus’ inspection of and judgment of the Temple and his rejection of Second Temple Judaism. The Message of the entire chapter could not be more clear. What was taking place was not the true worship of Yahweh God of Israel and Yahweh God of Israel has come to judge and replace it with what God intended for it to be all along. 




But this last sermon from chapter eleven is less about the Temple and more about the one whom the Temple represented and pointed forward to—namely Jesus. Here is a portion of my introduction to this sermon:

“As I’ve already said, the temple was the center of Jewish worship. It had replaced the tabernacle which had dated back to the time of Moses. It was the center of all priestly activity and the priests rotated in and out of service there on an annual basis. And the Jewish people made regular pilgrimages there from as far away as Rome, wherever they had been scattered in the dispersion. At least once, if not twice a year the faithful would make the long trek up to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover or Yom Kippur or whatever the occasion might be.

And now Jesus has come and made inspection, and rebuked its leadership and pronounced doom upon it, and in so doing has displayed an audacious claim to authority. Who does he think he is? Well, he’s acting in the role of a prophet, but as we will see as we consider this incident this morning, he is claiming even more authority than that. So let’s look at it.“

I hope that you will take the time to listen to the audio of the sermon, which I’ve linked below. Just click the link and a new window will open up in your browser and you’ll be able to stream the audio or download it for later listening. God bless you!

Click here: Mark 11:27-33 - The Authority of Jesus


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