Mark 11:12–25 — Fruitless Religion and a Fruitful Relationship

This sermon is from Mark 11:12-26 and is entitled, "Fruitless Religion and the Fruitful Relationship."

Mark 11:12–26

It was delivered to Ekklesia Churches on Sunday, November 16, 2025.

If you think back to the last passage, we had this climactic buildup to basically a

letdown for everyone around Jesus in the temple.

They were shouting Hosanna and some were heralding Jesus as a prophet, some as the Messiah, but

none of them really understood or desired him as the king that he really was.

They weren't really ready to understand or desire his kingdom as it really was.

And so the result was a bunch of empty worship and false expectations of Jesus and his coming

kingdom.

In this passage, we're going to deal with the center of all of their empty belief, which

was a temple and religious leaders that no longer served the function they were supposed

to.

They thought that when the temple was restored by the Messiah, that all would be made right.

And I've seen a similar mindset play out in more than one church congregation as well,

in which we think that a building renovation or a building project or a new building entirely

maybe will fix problems that are actually spiritual in nature. But Jesus wasn't there

to replace or restore their temple or the Jews or even the priesthood. Jesus isn't going to

fix up those things. He's going to replace the entire thing with direct access to God through

relationship with the Son of God, who is Jesus himself. So we're seeing here another of what we

would call a Markan sandwich with this passage in which Mark explains the thing happening in the

middle with what happens on either side of it. So we see Jesus explaining, sometimes through

symbolism, sometimes with supernatural signs, and sometimes by flipping over tables, that the

corrupted and fruitless temple was at an end, and it would be replaced entirely with something so

much better. Instead of fruitless religion, we get Jesus himself. So let's read the first half

of this passage together today. This is verses 12 through 19 of chapter 11.

On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry, and seeing in the distance a fig

tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found

nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. And he said to it, May no one ever eat fruit

from you again. And his disciples heard it. And they came to Jerusalem, and he entered the temple

and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple. And he overturned the

tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons, and he would not allow

anyone to carry anything through the temple. And he was teaching them and saying to them,

Is it not written, My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations,

but you have made it a den of robbers. And the chief priests and the scribes heard it,

and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished

at his teaching. And when evening came, they went out of the city.

So first, let's address this situation with this fig tree, which serves as a kind of introduction

to what Jesus is going to do in the temple. Again, this calendar conversation from the last

passage comes into view, which I just find so interesting that the time of year is kind of

important, what time of year is this happening? So the most common belief is that this is early

spring just before Passover. If it is early spring, then what Jesus is hoping to find on this tree

with leaves is some pre-season figs, which were technically edible, and it's possible that he

expected to find something like that on the tree. If it is late fall, as I proposed actually in the

last passage, it would have been just past the regular harvest, and Jesus in that case would have

been hoping to find some ripe figs that had not been harvested yet because this tree is not in a

grove of trees but on the side of a road. So it's important to note that the text itself

really could go either way because all it says is that it isn't the season for figs, which could

mean it isn't the season yet, which would have been spring, or it's past the season, which would

have been in the late fall. So I still prefer the late fall view myself for a couple of practical

reasons. It makes more sense in light of the last passage. It makes more sense that Jesus too

would go fully expecting to find something to eat on this tree by the side of the road, not just

having a remote chance. But it could go either way, so I'm not going to get hung up on it.

Far more important is the role of the fig tree as a reference to Israel, which is the real

reason Jesus does this and definitely the reason that Mark is showing it to us in this

order.

The fig tree historically has often been used as a reference to Israel throughout the prophets,

and it's always in the context of failing to be fruitful.

So listen to this from the prophet Micah.

This is Micah 7.1.

It says,

Woe is me, for I have become, as when the summer fruit has been gathered, as when the

grapes have been gleaned, there is no cluster to eat, no first ripe fig that my soul desires.

We'll look at another one later, but here we have Jesus coming to this fig tree, and

there is no ripe fig that he desires, and so he curses it.

Let's also kind of recognize here that as the author of life, Jesus has the right to

make a declaration like this to anything that he has created.

But even early on in church history, they recognized this as a kind of living parable

through which Jesus was giving an object lesson about the failure of Israel to produce fruit

through the temple system.

So to understand what happens next with the temple, we really have to understand how the

temple was supposed to function in the way that God designed it.

So first, the temple was to consist of four courts within each other, which kind of successively

became more exclusionary, leading all the way to the Holy of Holies, where only one

priest went once a year.

And this layout was designed to show in a physical space that God was completely holy

and also that we are separated from him by our sin, but that God was also inviting us

near to himself.

So of those courts, the largest outer court was actually called the Court of the Gentiles

because it was designed to invite all people, even non-Jews, to worship God there.

In Isaiah 56, verse 7 says,

Isaiah 56:7

These I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer.

Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar,

for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.

So even in the Old Testament, there's this reference to this area within the temple in which all people are invited to pray and worship God.

The temple was designed as a place that facilitated worship and specifically worship of the one true God.

But it was also the center of the sacrificial system that was instituted by God in Exodus.

So it was really to operate as kind of a nonprofit organization in which people would bring their own animals for sacrifice or the very poor could purchase a simple offering like pigeons or doves there at the temple.

They would give an offering of half of one shekel for the rich and the poor alike to the temple.

And that went toward the service of the tent of meeting, which kind of provided for the

materials and the priests and so forth.

And all of this came from instructions found in Exodus 30 for the tabernacle.

However, a lot of changes had happened since the tabernacle of old and later the first temple

that was completed by Solomon, because that temple had been torn down and destroyed.

So this period of time with Jesus was referred to as the second temple period because the

original temple had been rebuilt by none other than Herod the Great of all people.

That's right.

The man who tried to murder the Son of God as a baby built this magnificent temple.

So here's what the temple was like by Jesus' day in the first century.

So King Herod had built this enormous temple by building up the base to be multiple times

the size of the original, making what we today even are able to see as the temple mount.

He made everything very large.

And honestly, a lot of the features are very Greek looking because it's very impressive.

This new temple was kind of one part appeasement of the Jewish people that he governed for Rome,

but it was also kind of one part a monument to himself. Herod was really good at building

monuments to himself. In fact, right outside Jerusalem, he had another castle built and he

chose a hill for them to build it on, but realized that he couldn't quite see Jerusalem from it

because there was another hill that was in the way. And his bigger concern was that Jerusalem

couldn't see him from it. And so he had them manually carve down the top of the mountain,

this hill that was in his way, and use it to build up the hill his castle was to be built on.

So we'll come back to Herodium later is what that place was called. But back to the temple,

the function of this temple was also different from the original. So what had happened was the

court that was to be the court of prayer was now a market where various merchants came to sell to

the poorest people the sacrifices they needed, like pigeons. But what they were doing is they

were selling those at many times the market rate because these were the only pigeons appropriate

for the temple. Remember that half shekel that they needed for the entrance according to God's

law, well, they now lived in a nation in which Roman coins were the standard, which presented

a problem because each Roman coin has a graven image of Caesar on it, which made it inappropriate

for the temple.

So don't worry, they had a solution for that too.

They called in money changers to the courtyard to set up shop, and they would gladly take

your Roman denarii and give you a more acceptable half shekel to use in the temple.

The problem was that that darn exchange rate was just totally up to them.

So it could be a denarii for a half shekel or five denarii.

And because they controlled the goods, there was nothing anybody could do about it.

What about the religious leaders, right?

What about the priesthood who was supposed to represent the people before God?

Where were they?

Weren't they supposed to be protecting the people from things like this?

Well, they were there, and they were overseeing the entire operation.

In fact, the Sadducees governed the whole thing and profited handsomely from every transaction

that took place in the temple court.

So this was no longer a non-profit service representing the people before God.

It had become a corrupt for-profit enterprise with complete power over the helpless people

who had no other way to come to God.

So do you start to get an idea of why Jesus is furious and starts flipping tables when

he comes into the courtyard?

It starts to make sense why he starts with the money changers profiting off the house

of God with dishonest gain. It starts to make sense why he kicks out the pigeon sellers,

taking advantage of the poor who came to repent. This is a righteous anger that Jesus acts with

as he begins dismantling the corruption in his father's house. It also starts to make sense of

why the religious leaders in the temple see what Jesus does, and they hear what he says,

And they get the message loud and clear.

Jesus is sending a message by halting the sacrificial flow, condemning the money-making operations

of the temple that was their bread and butter, and calling the ones profiting from the whole

mess robbers.

And we know they get the message because they immediately begin to plot the destruction

of Jesus.

So I do think it would be unfaithful of me as a proclaimer of the word to stop short of saying

that there is a warning here for those today who would try to peddle their wares under the guise

of Christianity, even for groups of people claiming to be a church, for those who would

try to profit off the desperation of the poor and the simple by telling them a false gospel

of false prosperity and wealth. For those people who would attempt to extract a fee from those

who would come to Jesus for his freely offered grace, I'll let the Holy Spirit do the work of

conviction here, but the warning is simply this. The same Jesus who flipped the tables of those

who did these things in the first century is coming again with all power and dominion,

and I would not want to be on the other side of those tables when he returns.

So this temple was beautiful on the outside,

but it was really an empty monument that was spiritually empty on the inside.

Just like the fig tree that was leafy on the outside but was really fruitless,

the will of God was not to fix up this broken, empty practice of religion,

but to replace it with a restored relationship with himself.

So let's read on to see what this relationship is going to look like,

beginning with what is going to happen to the temple.

This is beginning with verse 20.

As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots.

And Peter remembered and said to him,

Rabbi, look, the fig tree that you cursed has withered.

And Jesus answered them, Have faith in God.

Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, Be taken up and thrown into the sea, and does

not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be

done for him.

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it,

and it will be yours.

And whenever you stand praying, forgive.

if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you

your trespasses. The fig tree is no more. And it says that even the roots were withered. So this

was not an example of the tree just being done for the season or until the spring or whenever.

It will never again produce fruit, just like the temple will no longer fulfill the role that it had.

Another prophetic passage that we could turn to is found in Jeremiah 8, verse 13.

Jeremiah 8:13

It says,

When I would gather them, declares the Lord, there are no grapes on the vine, no figs on the fig tree,

even the leaves are withered, and what I gave them has passed away from them.

So what once was has passed away, and now something new has come. God is about to gather

a new people to worship him, and they will be gathered around faith in his only begotten son,

Jesus. Instead of animal sacrifice, a sacrifice was about to be made on their behalf that would

render the old system fulfilled and done, the price paid with the blood of Jesus. And instead

of a physical temple, each follower of Jesus will become a living temple filled with the Spirit of

God. When the disciples ask about the withered plant, because they don't understand what's just

happened, Jesus makes some statements that probably seemed nonsensical to them, or at least I would

think that when Peter points out the withered bush, Jesus' answer is, have faith in God.

But they do make sense to us when we know that Jesus is talking about this new way

in which we relate to God that does not involve the temple. His answer begins with,

have faith in God. Jesus is pointing them away from the temple, away from the corruption that

they just witnessed, but also away from the whole old system, which was being replaced with something

better. Have faith in God, not the men who are failing to represent him well.

Then he talks about this mountain being moved, which has been used out of context,

this section, by the very preachers of the prosperity gospel that I just warned against.

This verse is not about asking for a Ferrari and having faith that God will give you one.

That's just not what Jesus is talking about. In context, there are two mountains in view

from where Jesus probably stands when he says this, and both of them are potentially significant.

The first mountain is the Temple Mount that within a few decades, actually, will be torn down to only the platform on which it stood.

So I want to add that the original Second Temple was built as the people came back from exile.

What Herod had done was to build it up and make it even more grand than it was before.

He wanted, in the place of just the temple, a monument to what he had done.

The second mountain, though, in the distance, other than the Temple Mount, that was raised by man and had a fortress built on it, just tall enough, in fact, to see Jerusalem, is Herodium.

Herod's engineered mountain, which actually is still there today, though it too is in ruins.

So it's with these two mounts in view that Jesus talks about a mountain being thrown into the sea.

and believing that what you ask God for in faith will come to pass.

Jesus is communicating to his followers here that God is able to do all that is in his holy will to do,

and he will accomplish it, even when those that stand in opposition to him appear to be mountainous.

Because both the corrupt temple and the Roman Empire would crumble,

but the kingdom of God remains unshakable.

Jesus is going to give his disciples instructions on how to pray later,

and it's going to involve asking for your kingdom to come.

The final instruction for this new kingdom, though, this new arrangement,

besides having faith in God to do all things, Jesus says has to do with forgiveness.

The people of this new kingdom, as a central quality, will understand the forgiveness they

have received and will therefore extend forgiveness freely to others.

And if you don't understand that and you don't forgive, it's possible that you might not be

a part of this new community of faith that Jesus is calling.

That's how central forgiveness is to being a follower of Christ.

That also brings us to kind of the missing verse 26. So the ESV, along with several other

translations, includes verse 26 as a footnote because we don't find it in the earliest manuscripts

of Mark. And that leads us to believe that it was probably added in at some point during later

translations of Mark because verse 26 is a paraphrase of something Jesus says in the Gospel

of Matthew. So it actually rings true, but we'll save that specific thing for the next time that

we're in the Gospel of Matthew instead of talking about it here. So can you see how we've moved from

the temple-centered religion to a heart-centered worship? We've moved from sacrifices offered by

a priest to a sacrifice of forgiveness given to one another by those who have been forgiven much.

Instead of going to the temple, we go to God directly and we ask for what we need in prayer.

Instead of intermediaries like the priests, we have one great high priest who is Christ.

The gospel is on full display in this passage for those who know where to look for it,

because Jesus is fulfilling and replacing the old system, the old covenant, with the new covenant in his blood.

Access to God through faith in Christ in every way.

This new way of Jesus is far superior to the old system because it involved the living

presence of God dwelling with his people.

Better than the best king of the old kingdom of Israel is King Jesus and the new kingdom

brought in his blood.

So the application of this passage is really twofold.

depending on where you are right now with Jesus, for those who aren't following Jesus yet,

or maybe are following him at a distance. Many of the people that we pray for on a weekly basis

in house church gatherings are in this place. I want you to know, and they need to know,

that there is no system, there is no ritual, there is no cultural system that gives life

the way that Jesus gives life. Do not settle for the appearance of life and get all of the leaves

and none of the fruit. Don't be fooled by the flashy buildings and the flashy smiles of anyone

who would sell you something less than all of what Jesus offers you freely.

Come to Jesus, receive what he has for you, and do not delay.

And for those of us who are following Jesus, I would invite you to ask whether your life reflects

the busy ritual of the temple in Jesus' day, or it reflects the relational kingdom that Jesus calls

us to, the one marked by bringing your needs to the Lord in prayer and freely forgiving because

you have been forgiven. No matter where you are, the good news, the gospel of Jesus is one that

invites us not to a fixed-up religion, but rather to a fully restored relationship with

God himself. And we are called to that through Jesus alone.

Ekklesia is a church of house churches gathering weekly in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and in homes

throughout the week. We are a Bible-centered church focused on preaching from Scripture

and making disciples of Jesus. You can learn more about our statement of faith and contact