Scripture: Mark 10:15-19; Luke 4:18-19
Theme: Breaking Barriers – Turning Over Tables – Jesus’ Style
One of the things that Jesus loves to do is to break barriers that keep all of us from Him, the Father and the Holy Spirit. Let’s look at a few of them.
INTRO:
Grace and peace from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!
I want to share with you today God’s joy in breaking down barriers. Breaking down all the things that hinder us from becoming His (God’s) People living an Abundant Life on His Good Earth.
Our Markan text this morning takes us into the very heart of the matter.
Jesus and his disciples arrived at the Temple only to find that there were all these barriers keeping the people from being able to sacrifice and to pray (spending some quality time) with God.
What were some of those barriers?
+Most of the people had come with Roman/Greek or other native coins which had to be changed over to official Temple coins. Because foreign coins bared an inscribed image (Cesar or some other ruler) they violated the 2nd Commandment and therefore couldn’t be used in any orthodox Temple transactional business or placed in the offering boxes.
+They also needed an official sacrifice – one that had passed the strict regulations of the Temple inspectors. This would have included the likes of a dove, sheep, goat, oxen and/or even some grain. Even if a person had attempted to bring their own sacrifice it would have been rejected and a substitute would have been necessary.
Temple money changers at that time were notorious for shortchanging people (hence Jesus’ use of the word “robbers”). And often a sacrificial animal costs were exceedingly more at the Temple than it would have been on the streets of Jerusalem.
Temple business had become big business with the major emphasis on making as much money as it could even if it meant fleecing God’s people.
All of that angered Jesus. It angered him because:
+The Temple was to be God’s House. It was not to be the house of either Ceasar or King Herod. It was not to be the house of the Sanhedrin. It certainly was not to become a place where money had become its own god. It was to be God’s House – the House where God’s people were invited to come and spend time with Him.
It was to be a place of prayer, refuge, repentance, restoration and renewal. A place that reminded people of the time when God would come down and spend precious time with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden in love and fellowship.
Seeing all of this, Jesus does what His Heavenly Father wanted Him to do. He got rid of the barriers. He got rid of anything that was keeping people from being able to talk to God, spend time with God and be transformed by God. That’s what Jesus does when he upsets all those tables. He is getting rid of the barriers.
When you look at the entire Old and New Testament you see that the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY – The Good God of Creation – Father, Son and Holy Spirit are constantly doing all they can to get rid of any type of barrier that separate Them from Their Creation.
These were not the first tables that Jesus turned over. In fact, if you look throughout His whole mission on earth we can see other tables – other barriers that Jesus turned over to help rescue, redeem and restore humankind.
Let’s take a minute or two to look at some of them using His words in Luke 4 as a background.
1. The Biggest Table Jesus Overturned – Sin –
The Prophet Isaiah tells us in Isaiah 59:2 – But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.”
Sin is the biggest barrier any of us face.
It is a barrier that is bigger than us.
It’s a table we cannot even budge.
It’s too big. It’s too powerful. It’s too nailed to the floor.
But here comes the Carpenter – Jesus of Nazareth – The Anointed One - The One who Created Us and Everything Else that we have on our earth. With one touch – His touch – the plan of Salvation comes to fullness.
“All have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and are justified (made right) by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus – Romans 3:23-24.
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” – Romans 6:23
“For God so loved the world that He gave His Only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but enjoy everlasting life.” – John 3:16
The biggest barrier – SIN - the biggest table so to speak that we will ever have to face is one that Jesus turned over at the Cross of Calvary.
No longer do we have to face everlasting death or be under the penalty and power of sin.
No, in Christ we can be set free. We can be rescued and redeemed. We can be restored and regenerated. We can experience the New Birth from above and be filled with the presence of His Holy Spirit.
That is the first table that Jesus knocks over for all of us – Sin – The Power and Penalty of Sin.
Now, when we look at Luke 4:18-19 we see all kinds of barriers that Jesus tells us He came to overturn and make a way for us to experience the life He, the Father and Holy Spirit wants for all of us.
Let’s look at some of them this morning:
2. The Tables of Poverty and Want
The Bible is full of poor people who did great things for God because God stepped in and turned over the tables of poverty.
+The whole nation of Israel found itself in miserable poverty in the land of Egypt. Millions of people were enslaved with seemingly no future hope of any better life.
And yet, the Bible tells us that the LORD God Almighty turned over quite a few tables with those plagues and then some more at the Red Sea. God turned over a few more tables as God’s people leave Egypt not as a poor and impoverished people, but the Bible tells us that the Egyptians gave Israel all kinds of material goods and possessions. In effect, the slave owners paid them to leave.
Now, that’s a great story!
+Think for a moment of Ruth and Naomi who were reduced to having to depend on the welfare system of ancient Israel to have food to eat. Then remember how God used Boaz to not only rescue and redeem them but through Ruth and Boaz the line of the King David was established. Namoi and Ruth went from poverty to living a life of riches.
Now, that’s a great story.
Today, the Church is called to be the feet and hands of Jesus and to push over the tables of poverty that affect thousands of people around us.
That is why church after church has developed ministries that feed, clothe and shelter people. Ministries that help people with their medical bills, electric bills and other bills.
This is why people should be able to call upon the church for help. Every church should have a budget that dedicates funds to help others in their time of need. Every church needs to be in the business of kicking over the tables all kinds of poverty and want.
No single church can do everything on its own. They are not supposed to do that. Instead, we are to network and connect with one another to radically make a difference in our world. The world needs us. The poor need us. The whole world needs us to kick over a few tables.
3. The Multiple Tables of Exclusion
The tables of exclusion are some very big tables. They include tables/barriers that hold people captive to their ethnic and socioeconomic situations. Theu include tables focused on ageism. mental, emotional and other health conditions. In essence these tables deal with all that affects humanity negatively and keeps people apart from one another and even at times apart from themselves.
Jesus spent his entire ministry breaking barriers for people:
+He reaches out to people regardless of their ethnicity, social standing or financial standing
-The Samaritan woman at the Well becomes the first evangelist
-Matthew the Tax Collector becomes a disciple and authors one of the Gospels.
-Simon the Zealot becomes a disciple
-The Centurion’s servant is healed
+Jesus reaches out to people of all ages
-He has time for and blesses the young children
-He calls the Rich Young Ruler to follow Him
-He heals the middle-aged man who had been crippled for 38 years of his life
-He works with the Apostle John not only in his younger life but as an old man the Apostle John sees the Lord and writes the Book of Revelation
+Jesus heals so many that suffered from various diseases – things that excluded them from being able to be a part of regular society.
+Blindness, deafness, crippled, blood issues, epilepsy, leprosy and more
+Jesus frees people dealing with mental issues including demonic possession
When you take just a quick glance at the life and ministry of Jesus you not only notice that he kicked over this table at the temple that was a barrier for people but hundreds and thousands of other barriers as well.
In fact, one of the ways that you could portray Jesus’ ministry is that of kicking over this table and that table (barrier after barrier) that was keeping people from being able to reach out to people.
Jesus not only wanted to make the Temple a place where people could meet and spend time with God, but He wanted the same to happen all over the world.
Jesus broke barriers on the mountain top with James, John and Peter and they saw Jesus with Moses and Elijah.
Jesus broke barriers with Peter as he is invited to walk on water and then as the disciples see Jesus calming the sea.
Everything Jesus did was to break barriers.
It didn’t stop once Jesus was risen from the dead.
In fact, breaking barriers is the work of the Holy Spirit today. The Holy Spirit continually leads the Church to break barriers as the reach out to the Samaritans first and then to all Gentiles.
Barnabas breaks a barrier as he goes to find Paul and bring this former persecutor of the Church into the inner leadership circle of the Church.
The Apostle Paul then breaks barriers as he reaches out to Timothy, a young man of mixed heritage and makes him a central part of the Early Church.
Philip reaches out to the Ethiopian treasurer who because of his physical condition (a eunuch) would have been rejected by the Temple and not only wins him to Jesus but baptizes him just to seal the deal.
Lydia causes Paul to break some barriers as the crusty old Apostle is called to make his headquarters in a Gentile woman’s house.
Repeatedly, story after story in the Bible we see one barrier being pulled down so people can come to God.
Thank God this morning there are millions of Churches that have as a part of their DNA the need to turn over some tables.
It can be seen in food pantries, soup kitchens, pregnancy centers, Recovery ministries, AA, evangelism ministries and ministries that focus on helping people no matter what their age, their economics, their sex or their spiritual condition.
So, what are we to do with this passage:
1. Ask ourselves – Have we allowed Jesus to kick over the table of sin in our lives. Have we asked Jesus to remove the barrier of sin so that we can be rescued, redeemed and restored into His image. Have we allowed Jesus to forgive us of our sins and be Born Again – Born from above through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.
2. Then pause and see if we as individuals and as a body of believers are busy turning over tables – removing barriers so that others might experience the New Birth, be filled with the Holy Spirit and live the life that God wants all of us to live.
There is no better feeling than turning a table over so that one of God’s children can experience everlasting life and the abundant life here on His Good Earth.
Let’s join Jesus and knock over some tables so that others might enjoy and experience the life that Jesus makes possible through the power and presence of His Holy Spirit.
Song – Invitation – Prayer - Blessing
