The Thieves of Prayer
Mark 11:15-19 KJV And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves; [16] And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple. [17] And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves. [18] And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how they might destroy him: for they feared him, because all the people was astonished at his doctrine. [19] And when even was come, he went out of the city.
I. INTRODUCTION -- HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
-The text that we have read is an account of the second cleansing of the Temple. Three years had now passed since the first Temple cleansing that is recorded in John (2:12-17).
-When you make a comparison between the first Temple cleansing and the second Temple cleansing, it appears that a huge progression had come about. In John 2, one finds the Lord simply saying that the temple had been turned into a house of merchandise. . . . . but what did not stay cleansed had deteriorated into a “den of thieves.” It took just three short years for this to happen.
-When the Lord walked into the Temple on both of those days, He determined to clean it up. He walked into that littered court and began to see the cages of animals in disarray there was something that welled up inside of Him.
• He could hear the bleating of sheep and cry of the dove.
• He saw the oxen working the cud in their mouths.
• He heard the rattle of money being swept off the tables and into the bags.
• He breathed in the foul odors of animal droppings.
• He watched as shrewd moneychangers cheated worshipers one after the other.
• He took in all of the haggling and cheating and irreverence.
• He then saw something that would help Him clean out the Temple. . . . a broken tether and a lost rope. . . to which He begin to weave together and form a whip. . . . then He assailed the money-changers. . . and begin the cleansing. . .
-In His first year, He cleansed. . . . In His third year, He cleansed. . .
-The second cleansing was marked by His gathering anger. Jesus had watched the steadily mounting rebellion in His visits to the Temple. It was not an overnight thing where the animals had shown up for the inflated market price. It was over a period of time. . . It is the gradual that gets far more than the sudden change. . . But when prayer is forced out, the Temple will get desecrated.
A. Cleansing
-This is the way that it is in our walk with God. If the first cleansing is not effective there will be a dangerous demise of the sacred things in our lives. If leaven is left long enough, its influence escalates. . . that is why it is imperative for us to get rid of the “thieves.”
• You cannot market your sacrifice of prayer.
• You cannot barter with your hunger for holiness.
• You cannot trade your offerings of righteousness.
• You cannot sell your devotion of faithfulness.
• You cannot purchase a passion for souls.
• You cannot buy desire that will alter the world that you live in.
-These things will only be attained and nourished by a persevering devotion to prayer.
-Our American lifestyle has terribly injured our prayers.
-We have greedily gone after the error of Balaam with the pursuit of money. Somewhere in our perception we have decided that spiritual things can be bought and sold in the place of Temples of our heart.
-No generation has lived that has the resources that we are able to buy in this point in history. Books, CD’s, DVD’s, study guides, study Bibles, and devotionals are nothing more than junk food when compared to heaven-shaking, earth-rattling prayers.
-The purchase of these resources at the expense of substituting our prayer is causing the Church to pay a huge toll in other areas of life. One needs to go no further than to just casually glance at some of the trends in “Christianity” to see that the landscape is changing.
-The cry from the Church seems to be for revival. . . . The cry is coming from saints and spiritual leaders in every church. . . however, the disconnect very well could be that we are looking in the wrong places. . .
• Revival is pursued through programs.
• Revival is chased after in seminars.
• Revival is studied in books.
• Revival is trained for with DVD’s.
• Revival is corralled with social philandering.
-But has anybody decided to ask God in deep places of prayer for revival??? Has it crossed our minds that these “thieves” had taken our prayer away from us???
-This is a time where we must entirely devote ourselves again to the ministry of prayer and the struggle of intercession.
-You will notice this is what the early Church did:
Acts 1:14 KJV These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication. . .
Acts 2:42 KJV And they continued stedfastly. . . in prayers.
Acts 3:1 KJV Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer. . .
Acts 4:31 KJV And when they had prayed, the place was shaken. . .
Acts 6:4 KJV But we will give ourselves continually to prayer. . .
Acts 11:5 KJV I was in the city of Joppa praying. . .
Acts 12:5 KJV . . . prayer was made without ceasing of the church. . .
Acts 12:12 KJV . . . where many were gathered together praying.
Acts 13:3 KJV And when they had fasted and prayed. .
Acts 16:16 KJV . . . as we went to prayer. . .
-If the early Church made such emphasis on prayer and evangelism, then consider this question from Leonard Ravenhill.
Leonard Ravenhill (From Revival Praying) -- Is it really a comfort to know that the recent converts will become just like us? What if they are as lazy and self-excusing in the matter of personal devotion to Jesus and active engagement in soul-winning as the rest of our listed church members? Is that a thrilling though? Or is it a spine-chilling one?
-How much longer will the “thieves” rob us of our prayer? . . . When will we restore our Churches and our lives to be “houses of prayer” instead of a “den of thieves”?
-I realize that these are some edgy points to be tackling in our soft age. . . . But there is a heightening desperation in my own spirit that hungers for prayer to be restored!
B. Cursing
-You will also notice that with both Temple cleansings that each were preceded with cursings. . .
-Each were cursings for emptiness. The empty wine vessels and barren fig trees were both symbols of emptiness. Both had promise but no performance.
-The first curse wasn’t so overt but it was still a curse. The wine had been consumed at the wedding feast in Cana and the curse of the empty vessels now faced the Lord. He worked a miracle.
-The second curse was drastically different. . . The Lord found a fig tree that was full of leaves but held no fruit. He cursed the fig tree and it withered away and was dead by the next morning.
• Before the first cleansing, He healed.
• Before the second cleansing, He cursed.
• The first sign of emptiness received grace.
• The second sign of emptiness received judgment.
• The first sign of emptiness was filled with wine.
• The second sign of emptiness was cursed to remain barren.
• The first sign of emptiness was because of limited resources.
• The second sign of emptiness was because of limited maturity.
-The only remedy for emptiness in our lives is for a full restoration of prayer as never before.
II. THIEVES OF PRAYER
-If the house of prayer has been turned into a den of thieves, then who are thieves that have stolen the holy, sacred gatherings of prayer?
-Some of the thieves are so subtle that we have almost lost our ability to recognize them but other thieves have been so bold and daring that we almost hesitate to challenge them.
A. Convenience
-The priest’s of the Lord’s time had followed the similar suit that Hophni and Phinehas (the sons of Eli) had taken in robbing those who came to worship. Now Caiaphas and Annas and their cohorts had found a way to make huge profits off of the worshippers who came to the Temple.
-Some historians estimate that the High Priest and his henchmen were actually charging as much as ten times the normal worth of a sacrifice to these unsuspecting travelers.
-Don’t worry with bringing your sacrifice with you to the Temple. . . . We have something that you can buy when you get there.
-Convenience will always be the enemy of sacrifice. But one would also have to consider the fact that the priests were not the only ones to blame either. The sacrifice was the responsibility of the pilgrims to bring to worship. They too had sold out their devotion to the ploy of convenience.
-Evil is not always negative when we are approached with it out “in the field.” The catch of the convenience (or the hook) is that this evil may actually turn out to be good. This is always the great deceit that accompanies the temptation of convenience.
-Sometimes the temptations toward convenience are not punishments but rather they are cloaked as discoveries, or opportunities, or as a vision of greatness. Temptation is a call from a hellish world but it never comes to our ears as a shrieking scream of horrific horror. Rather it is as one man wrote: “I believe the devil’s voice sinks deeper in our ear than any Voice from Heaven, however so sweet and clear.”
-There is nothing about convenience that is even remotely related to sacrifice. I have to confess that I tolerate so much in my lack of prayer because of convenience.
• We need not pray so much anymore, our music is great.
• We need not pray so much anymore, our church has grown.
• We need not pray so much anymore, our finances are blessed.
• We need not pray so much anymore, our needs are being met.
• We need not pray so much anymore, our sacrifice has given in to convenience.
-Convenient substitutes for prayer will destroy what God has in store for your life.
• It will destroy your passion for purity (holiness).
• It will destroy your passion for worship (relationship).
• It will destroy your passion for the prophetic (power).
-That is why God longs for His Church to be a praying church.
B. Busyness
-If the first thief is convenience, then the second thief is busyness.
-The classic illustration of this “barrenness of busyness” is with Martha.
Luke 10:40-42 KJV But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. [41] And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: [42] But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.
-Martha was so busy with the necessary and pressing things of life that she missed what Mary was gaining the wisdom of the ages.
-What was it that caused Martha to become “cumbered about much serving?” They were noble things:
• Martha was serving the crowd.
• Martha was supervising those who were helping her.
• Martha was involved with the extraordinary because God was coming to her house.
• Martha was putting her spirit into something lasting.
-But with all of this busyness, Martha was trading off some crucial things:
• Martha’s busyness was giving away an opportunity that time would forever seal.
• Martha’s busyness was missing something that could never be regained.
• Martha’s busyness was robbing her of her reverence for the Lord.
• Martha’s busyness was creating a deadly self-reliance and self-sufficiency on her abilities.
• Martha’s busyness was building into her spirit a habit of serving rather than seeking.
-Sometimes the most able spiritual chefs find themselves so spiritually undernourished because of their constant attention to serving others! We must give ourselves to prayer.
-Prayer is often so difficult for those who are in the “fast-lane.” Prayer is unnatural to Americans who are driven to success. The challenge is because we are so busy “doing” instead of “being.”
• We can read all the prayers of the Bible.
• We can gather material for Bible studies on prayer.
• We can go to prayer seminars.
• We can read devotional fodder on prayer.
• We can listen to others preach and teach on prayer.
• But until we actually pray. . . . We fall so short of what God longs to be in our lives, relationships, and our Churches.
C. Apathy
-If the first thief of prayer is Convenience and the second thief of prayer is Busyness, then the third thief of prayer is Apathy.
• Why get so worked up about prayer?
• Why allow yourself to get so pressured about prayer?
• Why don’t we just let things go as they are?
• Why should our Church be challenged to pray?
• Aren’t the bills being paid?
• Aren’t the lights still on and the doors still open?
• Why are you trying to stir things up so much around here about praying?
-This is the curse of the quiet life. This is the curse of all the drugs that Americans are eating like candy.
• Xanax for my anxiety.
• Prozac for my depression.
• Effexor for my feelings.
• Halcion and Restoril for my sleep.
• Lortab and Darvocet for my pain.
-All of those medicines may be good when you need them. . . but their goal is to knock the emotional clutches that pain has on us.
• There must be a holy anxiety that returns to us concerning the coming of the Lord.
• There must be a holy depression that puts us in a place of intercession.
• There must be a holy uneasiness about the condition of those around us.
• There must be a holy insomnia to burden us for revival and spiritual power.
• There must be a holy pain that troubles us to the point of crying out to God.
-Our generation is apathetic about prayer. In fact the greatest question in this generation seems to be “Why doesn’t God answer our prayer?” instead of “How can I improve my prayerlessness?”
-One of the reasons that prayer is not answered is because it often isn’t “prayed” or what is “prayed” is greatly lacking.
Charles Spurgeon -- And this spirit comes out very vividly in prayer. You do pray else were you not the living children of God at all; but oh, for more power in prayer! You have asked for a blessing; why not ask for a far greater one? We want more Christians of the type of the importunate widow; they have become very scarce nowadays. I should like to see that woman’s successors, those who will not lot the King go unless he blesses them, who lay hold upon the angel, as Jacob did, and wrestle all night until they got a blessing. Thou hast done well to pray; but thou shouldest have prayed much more. What blessings are waiting, what treasures are in the hand of God., ready for the man who can bend his knee, and stay at the mercy-seat till he wins his suit with God!
-This sort of spirit is further illustrated in 2 Kings 13 when Elisha directs Joash to strike the ground with arrows. . . Joash who is so apathetic about his situation that he simply goes through motions.
-Great victory for the nation could have been secured through Joash had he been more passionate about what he was doing. I dare say that some of the difficult circumstances in life could be changed if we were to throw off the apathy in our spirits and passionately begin to seek God again in prayer. There has to be a resurrection of that gnawing divine discontentment that used to push us to places of prayer.
-If we are apathetic in our praying, there are some terrible consequences that accompany this:
• Our enemies will shortly have the upper hand again.
• Our own suffering will escalate from the attack of the enemies.
• It causes the power of God to come under humanistic, carnal scrutiny.
-There must be some passion to return to our prayer.
-Jesus was a man of passion:
• His spirit was so moved that He groaned in anguish.
• His indignation could bring out a fierceness that left men speechless.
• His condemnation left men’s character as bare and black as a forest fire.
• His look at suffering and misery stirred Him to heal others.
• His giving of Himself to the smallest things of life made John the Baptist wonder about His identity (Would a King really do this? ? ? John expected an enthroned King.)
• The sight of great multitudes moved Him to compassion.
• The vision of the great city of Jerusalem moved Him to tears. His grief was over their souls and their blindness.
-Our lives and our Churches must be renewed into places of prayer again. Their design has to be motivated by a new holy passion for prayer. Spiritual experiences will leave their marks on material surroundings, if we allow it to happen again.
If my people who are called by my Name, will humble themselves and pray. . .
D. Hypocrisy
-If the first thief of prayer is convenience and the second enemy of prayer is busyness and the third enemy of prayer is apathy. . . then the fourth enemy of prayer is hypocrisy.
-The priests felt like, “We are really doing it right by filling this Temple with animals to be bought and sold for worship.” The Temple had become a place of a suitable alternative.
-If we allow hypocrisy to live long enough in the Temple, it will take over. If we allow hypocrisy to live long enough in our hearts, it will destroy our ability to pray and pursue the will of God.
-Sometimes the Temple is not cluttered with the animals and the moneychangers, instead:
• We come to worship and pray with hearts that are far from God and holy things.
We come and sit in pews and allow our minds to become busy with a material world.
• We come and sing but the tunes are tarnished by pride, jealous, and uncharitable feelings.
• We give of our tithes and offerings but allow our spirits to muddle through base and coarse thought patterns.
• We listen to the Word of God and pollute and desecrate our spirits with envy, malice, and wrath.
-The most ominous thing about hypocrisy is that it is carried out by those who are often the most knowledgeable about the holy and the most intimate with the sacred.
-The great counterfeit of the spiritual puts us at odds with God’s plan. . . but it stifles our prayers.
Jude 12-13 KJV These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; [13] Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.
-Seemingly with life. . . but full of deadness.
Van Doren -- The hypocrite affects the innocence of the dove to the hide the cunning of the serpent.
• Balaam -- A prophet who had no values.
• Judas -- An apostle who had no conscience.
• Saul -- A king who had no spiritual royalty.
E. M. Bounds -- Our religion breaks down oftenest and most sadly in our conduct. Beautiful theories are marred by ugly lives. The most difficult as well as the most impressive point in piety is to live it. Our praying suffers as much as our religion from bad living. Preachers were charged in primitive times to preach by their lives or not preach at all. So Christians everywhere ought to pray by their lives or not pray at all. . . Praying which does not result in pure conduct is a delusion. We have missed the whole office and virtue of praying if it does not rectify conduct. It is in the very nature of things that we must quit praying or quit bad conduct. . . A life growing in it’s purity and devotion will be a more prayerful life.
Matthew 6:5 KJV And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
-Prayer is the greater need of this hour and of this church. . . . Our lives and our prayers must be marked by holiness of mind, heart, and lifestyle. . .
• When sports stadiums take the place of prayer, it is robbing our prayers.
• When money is used in the wrong way, it will rob our prayers.
• When Hollywood fills the mind, it will rob our prayers.
• When online pornography flows through the eyes, it will rob our prayers.
• When discord is sown and rumors are spread, it will rob our prayers.
• When pride and deceit rule our lives, it will rob our prayers.
• When work conflicts with prayer, it will rob our lives.
• When sideline hobbies and interests rob your spiritual vineyard, it robs our prayers.
-This why there must be an emptying out of our spirit in the places of prayer.
III. CONCLUSION -- I DO NOT WANT TO BE FACED WITH. . .
-When I get to the end of my life or I am raptured out of this world, I do not want to be faced with the conclusion that I might have been a man of prayer. . .
There is a story told of a man who once came to see the famous artist Rossetti. His mission was motivated by the idea that this famous artist might be interested in the pictures that he had painted. Rossetti looked at the paintings and then hesitated as he tried to find the most diplomatic words for the man. He wanted to speak the truth but did not want to wound him either. It was not easy because the work was so common.
At last he told the traveler as sympathetically as he possibly could. After Rossetti had told him, the old man pulled out another collection of portraits that had been worked on diligently by a young student. “What are your thoughts on these particular paintings?” Rossetti was taken aback by the power, flair, and talent represented by this younger man’s collection. “These are excellent. They show great promise that this young man will one day distinguish himself among the artisans.” The words wilted the old man, who after a long sigh confessed, “I was that student.”
-Nothing could be sadder than such a life with that history. Excellent promise forty years ago and now failure! It is not the hand that had lost the cunning but the man had lost the character.
-This was the sorrow of the Lord when He said, “This house was intended for prayer, but has become a den of thieves.”
-This house must become a house of prayer!
Philip Harrelson
barnabas14@yahoo.com
