Mark 11: Don't Mess With the King

We're approaching the climax of Mark's Gospel as Jesus enters Jerusalem during his final week before crucifixion. This chapter reveals Jesus as both humble servant and powerful king who won't tolerate exploitation of his people or hypocrisy in worship.

• Jesus orchestrates his entry into Jerusalem on a donkey, fulfilling Messianic prophecy
• The crowds welcome him with palm branches and shouts of "Hosanna!"
• Jesus curses a fruitless fig tree as a prophetic action symbolizing judgment
• He cleanses the temple by driving out merchants who were exploiting worshippers
• Jesus teaches about faith that moves mountains and the importance of forgiveness in prayer
• Religious leaders challenge Jesus' authority but are silenced by his wisdom
• The central message: Don't mess with the King – take your relationship with God seriously

Make sure you take just a moment to like, share and subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast. Leave us a five-star review on the podcast—it really does help! Join the Bible Breakdown Discussion on Facebook, and you can get all that information at thebiblebreakdown.com.

Contact us-

Ask a Question
Send Encouragement

Take a Next Step-

SOAP Bible Study Method.
Bible Reading Plan.
Free Weekly Newsletter.

Socials-

Facebook.
Instagram.
X.
YouTube.

The More We Dig. The More We Find.

Chapters

• 0:48 Welcome to Bible Breakdown
• 2:08 Jesus Enters Jerusalem
• 5:20 The Fig Tree and Temple Cleansing
• 7:29 Faith That Moves Mountains
• 8:52 Religious Leaders Challenge Jesus
• 12:38 Don't Mess With The King

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:24

Well, hello everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, pastor Brandon. Today, mark, chapter 11, and today's title is Don't Mess with the King. Don't Mess with the King. This reminds me I told you guys a few days ago a story about Michael Jordan and him being a Hall of Fame. Well, I was another Michael Jordan story. I don't know why, I'm not that big a basketball fan, but it just comes to mind.

Speaker 1: 0:48

Another Michael Jordan story I don't know why, I'm not that big a basketball fan, but it just comes to mind. And that is I heard a story about a guy who was a fellow Hall of Famer and he said that while they were both still playing one day, he was having a really good game. This guy was, and he said Michael Jordan on the other team was not having a very good game. He was missing a lot of his shots, whatever. And so he said he started kind of talking to him, just kind of having some fun with him, and he said you know, michael, looks like you're getting a little old, looks like you don't really got it anymore, that kind of thing. And he said Michael Jordan looked at him and just said okay, and he said over the next few minutes he scored more points than the other guy had scored the entire game. And as he was leaving, he said don't mess with the king. And it just reminded me of this chapter, because Jesus is awesome. Jesus is humble and gentle in so many ways, but if you push the king, the king's going to show how powerful he actually is. And we're going to get into that in just a moment. And once again, don't read into it too much. I'm not calling Michael Jordan and Jesus anywhere on the same playing field. You get it Okay, but make sure you get your Bibles open. Open them up because we're going to dive right into God's Word. While you're doing that, make sure you take just a moment to like, share and subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast. Make sure you leave us a five-star review on the podcast it really does help and make sure you're going to the Bible Breakdown Discussion on Facebook. I do a great job there every single day. It's always a joy to read those and you can get all of that information at thebiblebreakdowncom.

Speaker 1: 2:17

Well, if you've been with us, we are getting close to the end of the Gospel of Mark and we have called the Gospel of Mark the Gospel in Motion, because, you know, in Matthew and in Luke you open up with the birth narrative of Jesus. John starts with you know, the beginning was the word. The word was with God. Mark is like, and then one day Jesus did this, you know, just jumps right in, which is just awesome, because he just covers so much in one chapter. And today is no different. He covers so many things in one chapter, but we are getting into where Mark is rushing toward. He is rushing straight to the cross and we are going to get to the place, to where it is now, about a week before the crucifixion of Jesus, he's going to enter into Jerusalem. It's not the first time Jesus has been in Jerusalem. He would have went at least once a year, his entire adult life at least, and so he has been been in Jerusalem. He would have went at least once a year, his entire adult life at least, and so he has been going to Jerusalem. But this one's different because this is the year. It's the year that he is going to be crucified and is getting ready for the Passover ceremony, or Passover feast, rather, and it is right here at it. And so we're going to jump right into God's word and we're going to see what it has to say to us today. Here we go. Don't mess with the king. Chapter 11, verse 1.

Speaker 1: 3:31

As Jesus and his disciples approached Jerusalem, they came to the towns of Bethpage and Bethany, on the Mount of Olives, and Jesus sent two of them to go on ahead. Go into the village over there, he told them, and as soon as you enter it you will see a young donkey tied there with no one who has ever ridden it. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks what are you doing, just say the Lord needs it and will return it soon. The two disciples left and found the colt standing in the street, tied outside the front door. As they were untying it, some bystanders demanded what are you doing untying that colt? They said Jesus had told them to say and they permitted it to be taken. Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their garments over it and he sat on it. Many in the crowd spread their garments on the road ahead of him and others spread leafy palm branches that they had cut in the fields. And others spread leafy palm branches that they had cut in the fields. Jesus was in the center of the procession and the people all around him were shouting Praise God. Blessed is the one in whom comes in the name of the Lord. Blessings on the kingdom of our ancestor David. Praise God in the highest heaven.

Speaker 1: 4:44

So Jesus came to Jerusalem and went to the temple. Looking around carefully at everything, he left because it was late in the afternoon. Then he returned to Bethany with his 12 disciples. The next morning after leaving Bethany, jesus was hungry, and so he noticed a fig tree in full leaf a little way off. So he went over to see if he could find any figs, but there were only leaves, because it was too early in the season for fruit. But then Jesus said to the tree may no one ever eat fruit from you again. And his disciples heard him say it. When they arrived back in Jerusalem, jesus entered the temple and began to drive out people buying and selling animals for sacrifices. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves, and he stopped everyone from using the temple as a marketplace. Then he said that evening Jesus and disciples left the city.

Speaker 1: 6:01

The next morning, as they passed by the fig tree that he had cursed, the disciples noticed it had withered from the roots up. Peter remembered what Jesus had said to the fig tree on the previous day and exclaimed Look, rabbi, the fig tree you cursed has withered and died. Then Jesus said to the disciples. Then Jesus said to the disciples have faith in God. I tell you the truth. You can say to this mountain may you be lifted up and thrown into the sea, and it will happen. But you must really believe it will happen and not have any doubt in your heart. I tell you, you can pray for anything and if you believe that you will receive it, it will be yours. But when you are praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins too.

Speaker 1: 6:48

Again they enter Jerusalem as Jesus was walking through the temple area. You know pause. You know Jesus is walking through that temple area and there's a lot of folks kind of looking at him a little different. Hey, hey, hey, jesus. Hey, I wasn't, I wouldn't do anything wrong this time. You know that little gun shy jesus.

Speaker 1: 7:05

This time the leading priest and teachers, religious law and the elders came up to him and they demanded by what authority are you doing all these things? Who gave you the right to do them. So I almost have this thought in my head they're still cleaning up from the mess that j made. You know what I mean. They're still fixing stuff and they're going. You see this mess. What gave you the authority to do this? Verse 29, I'll tell you about what authority I do these things, if you will answer one question. Jesus replied Did John's authority to baptize come from heaven or was it merely human? Answer me. He talked it over amongst themselves. If so, they finally replied I don't know, we don't know. And Jesus responded Well then, I won't tell you by what authority I do these things. So, in other words, jesus is saying today ain't the day, my friends, don't challenge the king, don't mess with the king. If you're going to challenge the king, you're going to have to bring that same energy. You're going to have to bring some receipts for what you got. Don't mess with the king.

Speaker 1: 8:17

So let's break down what Jesus did, first of all, when he came into the city of Jerusalem. They are there and they are celebrating the king. They're celebrating him for who he is and he goes and he sees the temple, and what he sees is something that, if we're not careful, we can misunderstand it unintentionally and by misunderstanding it, we can end up not really understanding what's going on. So here's what would happen is, during that time, the Jewish nation had been just dispersed all over the world because of being conquered you know all the different things and so it was a really rough situation. And so when people were coming back to Jerusalem and coming to the temple for worship, they were in situations where, a lot of times, they were having to travel long distances, and so what was happening was people were getting opportunities where they could buy the different sheep that they were going to sacrifice. They could buy different things. It was a service to the people. That was not.

Speaker 1: 9:13

The problem was going on. The problem was is that it had become a business where no longer were they trying to provide a service, but they were gouging people, something that would have cost, let's say, a hundred dollars. They were charging a thousand, because what can you do? You can't get anything else that will make it work anywhere else. Literally, you can only get what you need here, and so we can charge whatever, and there is no competition.

Speaker 1: 9:38

And so that's what Jesus is seeing is. He is seeing a gouging of the people, and he is going no, no, no. This is supposed to be a place of prayer and worship, not a place for you to gouge my people. This is not right. And so he just destroys all of that, because the king will not stand for his people, when they are trying to worship, to be taken advantage of, like eventually he'll take care of business, right.

Speaker 1: 10:00

And then afterward they come up and they're like why, why can you call the shots? Why do you get to do this? And he's saying well, how about this? You answer me this question. Why haven't you noticed what's been going on, like? In other words, he's saying you know very well that you have your skeletons, that you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing because, see, john came and he was telling them very directly that you need to prepare the way for the, for the king, you need to repent of your sins, all this stuff. And they didn't believe him. And so Jesus is calling him out on that and he is saying hey, listen you, you want, you want to talk real. Let's talk real. That's what he's doing. He was trying to draw out who they really were and they didn't want to go there. And so the answer to this or or not the answer, but the point of all this is don't mess with the king. Don't mess with the king, and can I tell you that is both an encouragement and a challenge for all of us today. Here's the challenge Don't mess with the king.

Speaker 1: 10:54

Make sure that we take our relationship with God seriously, because God does. God takes very seriously the commitment that he made to us. He takes it so seriously. He came to the earth, lived a sinless life, died on a cross, rose again and offers us salvation. It doesn't get any more serious and his commitment doesn't get any greater than that right. So let's make sure we match that same energy with God and we say God, you gave us your life. I'm not going to give you my weekend, I'm going to give you everything. Make sure we don't mess with the king.

Speaker 1: 11:31

On the other side, we trust that we don't mess with the king because he's got us. You know what that means, then? Is that means that in this life, you know he said at one point he said hey, you're going to receive blessing along with persecution, but to realize God's big enough to take care of things. I love this phrase. One time I think it was Charles Spurgeon that said this he said God's word does not need to be defended, no more than a lion needs to be defended. You just need to open the cage and he'll take care of himself. And so we need to not worry about our king being able to take care of himself. Just open the gate and let him out. And so we're encouraged by we take God seriously and we take God seriously that he knows how to take care of himself and don't worry about the rest. Keep living for God, you keep trusting in him and you keep moving forward and watch what God will do. Let's pray together right now.

Speaker 1: 12:19

God, thank you so much for today. Thank you, god, that in this chapter it reminds us that, jesus, you are humble, you are gentle, but you're not weak. You are powerful and you are strong and you are mighty. You're above all we can ask, think or imagine, and we're so very thankful for you. Thank you, god, for loving us the way you do. We're thankful for you in all things. In Jesus' name we pray Amen. And what God's word says in Mark 8, verse 34, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. I'm so thankful that we have a God worth following. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Mark, chapter 12.