Transcript

Let’s pray.

Father, we thank You that we can worship You and look to Your word this morning. We pray that You would bless us and guide us during this time. I pray that You would edify each one here, grant to them greater understanding, a greater trust in You, and a greater love for You. Thank You for this time together. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

The next passage to be read is Matthew 21:14-22. The truth I want to emphasize is this: Trust in God. This is a lesson on prayer and the key verse is found in verse 21, where Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will happen.” Now that verse shouldn't be taken in isolation, but in connection with what the rest of the Bible has to say on the topic at hand, which is prayer. Now, this whole part on prayer is the second of a two-part section. The first part has to do with praise, namely, praising Jesus as the Lord, which is followed by the second part on prayer, our area of emphasis today.

The first part on praise spans verses 14 through 17. The situation here is a continuation of Jesus’ time in the temple. Jesus had just cleared the temple and He declared the reason why He did this. It was because this is His house, a place for worship and prayer, but the merchants had made it into a den of robbers. Well, afterwards, the blind and the lame come to Jesus there in the temple and Jesus healed them. There were some wondrous things that were happening in the temple. The children who were there were shouting, as the crowd was doing as Jesus rode into Jerusalem, “Hosanna to the Son of David.” Now, when the chief priests and the scribes, the religious leaders, heard this, they became indignant and said to Jesus, “Do you hear what these children are saying?” This was a rhetorical question. “Hosanna” was a declaration to the Lord, but in this scene, the children were shouting this to Jesus as the Son of David. Jesus responds by quoting a scripture. He quotes out of Psalm 8 and says, “Yes, I hear what the children are saying. Have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies You have prepared praise for Yourself?’” Now Psalm 8 is an explanation of how even out of mouth of children God has ordained praise for Himself. The religious leaders didn't seem to understand what Jesus meant, because of their lack of understanding of Scripture. Jesus was claiming that He is the Lord to whom praise was to be attributed, according to Psalm 8. Well, Matthew records nothing in terms of conflict at this scene. Jesus then leaves the city and He goes out to the city of Bethany, several miles outside of Jerusalem, and He spent the night there. Well, what's the point of that first section? It's very much like the lesson we saw last time, which is that Jesus is the Lord, He is the Messiah.

The second part is on prayer. In this second part, from verses 18 through 22, Jesus teaches us to trust in God in prayer. Now the scene is rather strange in that Jesus actually curses a fig tree. And I'm going to explain why. But let me first give us a little background. Jesus returned to the city from Bethany and was hungry. He saw a fig tree from a distance with leaves. The leaves were a sign that the tree had fruit. So Jesus expects there to be fruit on the tree. But when Jesus gets there, there was no fruit. He then declared, “No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you.” According to Mark's account, Jesus actually cursed the tree. And we’re told that the tree withered. When the disciples saw the withered tree, they marveled and asked, “How did the fig tree wither all at once?” Jesus answered and said, “Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt (this is the key verse that I quoted earlier) you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will happen.” Then Jesus explains what He’s talking about: “all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.” Now, there are many misunderstandings of this passage. With this in mind, I am going to spend the remainder of our time to explain this with four observations about this topic.

First, this is indeed a lesson on prayer. That's how Jesus concludes: “all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.” This is verse 22. Since this is about asking in prayer, this is about petitionary prayer. It is a prayer in which we are asking God for something, where we are petitioning God. That's the first observation. This is about prayer.

Second, this is also about trusting God. Jesus describes this whole section in terms of faith. If you have faith, then you can do thus and such. And of course, even with prayer, when you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive. And so this has to do with faith. Now, the question is faith in what or faith in whom? In our English expression we have this idea of “having faith.” And what people mean by that is that you should believe in yourself, or you should just believe that good things are going to happen. Now, this is not what Jesus is teaching us. When we turn to Mark's account, Jesus's directive is recorded this way, “Have faith in God.” Jesus explicitly identifies in whom we are to have faith: in God. So then this is all about trusting God. This isn't about trusting yourself or trusting that good things will happen. This is a matter of trusting God. And it's important that we see the proper object of faith as God, because this is the way the Bible teaches the matter of faith. We are not to exercise any kind of faith but faith in God, in particular in the only true God, the LORD. So then, this whole passage is a lesson about prayer and about trusting God. By the way, there is a false teaching today that wrongly interprets passages like this, that if you believe strongly enough, then good things will happen. But this is not the biblical doctrine of prayer.

Thirdly, this is an object lesson. Some people wrongly assume that Jesus was just upset with the tree and let His anger out on the tree. But the text never says that in any of the gospels. To say that Jesus was angry is to read into the text. Instead, Scripture teaches us that Jesus never sinned. And so what is happening here? Well, Jesus did curse the tree, but He did so to teach an object lesson about prayer and faith in God. Now, this is in line with how Jesus often taught with objects. He pointed out to His hearers the birds of the air, the grass of the field, the sparrows, the dog and the swine. There was even a time, or multiple times, when He made massive amounts of fish to be caught in a net to teach a lesson to a few fishermen. Now, this scene is no different. Jesus withers a fig tree to teach an object lesson on faith and prayer. This is an object lesson. Jesus takes this opportunity to illustratively teach His disciples.

Fourthly, this is a lesson on Christian prayer, distinct from a pagan prayer. Let me first say a word on how to interpret Scripture. As you read the Bible, you'll discover that there has to be a proper way to interpret Scripture. Often when people start reading the Bible, they think that if they understood one part of the Bible that somehow they've understood the whole theology of the Bible. And that may very well not be the case. They may actually be misinterpreting Scripture because they may be making false assumptions about what the passage does not say, because they are not aware of how the rest of the Bible fills in the blank or sets the perspective for the topic at hand. For this reason, there is a well-established method of interpretation called the analogy of faith, sometimes it’s also called the analogy of Scripture. This method of interpretation is pretty commonsensical. It requires that the interpretation of any one part of Scripture must be made with the knowledge of the rest of the Bible. That is to say, if your interpretation of any one part of Scripture is inconsistent with the rest of what the Bible teaches on that subject, you have the interpretation wrong. This is because the word of God comes from the singular mind of God. And because God does not contradict Himself, we should not take an interpretation of Scripture that contradicts another part of Scripture. In terms of the words “analogy of faith” and “analogy of Scripture,” it simply means that how you interpret one portion of Scripture must be analogous with what the Bible says on that subject elsewhere, and that if your interpretation is not analogous to what the rest of the Bible says, then your interpretation is incorrect or you may be stretching the meaning of a Scripture beyond what God intended to say. I bring all this up because it's important to read what Jesus says here against the backdrop of how the rest of the Bible teaches on the topic of Christian prayer, quite distinct from the pagan form of prayer. What's the difference? The pagan form of prayer is where you are using God to get what you want. But the Christian form of prayer is seeking to advance what God wants on earth. In this sense, Christian prayer is a way to participate in the works of God, so that God's works will be accomplished on earth through our prayers. We see Jesus teaching us to pray this way. We see this in the Lord's Prayer: “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Jesus even sets the example for us when He prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, “Yet not My will but Yours be done.” In our Community Groups, we just recently heard this from 1 John 5:14, “If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.” That's the resounding teaching of Scripture. So then the mindset of a Christian when He prays and petitions God is a wholehearted acceptance of His will. He accepts that what God wants is good and right and best. A Christian prayer does not impose man’s will on God. We do not try to bend or conform God's will to ours. That's a pagan way of praying, where the deities are getting in the way of some human good and they are wrestling with the deity to get what they want. In biblical Christianity, God is all wise and all good, therefore, Christians believe God's will is far better, far wiser, and far more benevolent, than what we may think is good or wise. Therefore, when we pray, we are always speaking for God's will to be done. Anyone who teaches prayer as a means of getting your own wish to come true is propagating a false teaching. That is not the biblical doctrine, and that is not what this passage teaches. They are reading into this passage, filling in the blank the wrong way (apart from how the rest of the Bible teaches on prayer). The rest of the Bible does not allow us to do that.

Those are the four observations on the lesson here. The point of all this is simply this: Jesus trusted in God, and He prayed always seeking the will of God. We are to trust in God the same way. We should pray even as Jesus prayed. And when we participate in the works of God to advance God's will on earth like Jesus did, then according to Jesus’ promise, we, too, will see extraordinary answers to prayer. What can we learn from this? And what can we pray from all of this?

Number one: Trust in God. We should absolutely trust in God that He has the power to accomplish His will on earth, and that when we pray, seeking for God's will to be done, we should absolutely trust in Him to answer. Now, if we have failed to trust in Him, then this is a good time to confess and say, “Lord, I have failed to trust You. My heart was filled with doubt. I did not believe in Your goodness. I did not believe in Your power. I did not believe in Your wisdom. Please forgive me.” These are the sins for which Jesus died, and we can confess that to the Lord and receive forgiveness and restoration. So, first, trust in God.

Second, pray with the knowledge of God's will and with dependence on Him. Let me give us a few examples of what I mean by this. God wants me to live a godly life. I know that from the Bible. Then I ought to pray for it. And I should trust God that He will provide me the grace to live a godly life. God wants me to be a servant. I should absolutely pray for it, and believe that God will supply me with all the aid that I need to be a servant. God wants me to be humble. Then I should pray for humility because this is God's will. And I should trust in God that He will teach me humility. God wants me to be an honest man. Then I can pray for it. God wants me to be courageous. Pray for it. God wants me to be a joyful person. Pray for it. You see, this is how we seek the will of God in prayer. And as we pray for His purposes to be done, Jesus’ promise is that God will hear us. This is the way Jesus prayed. He always trusted in His Father. He knew the will of His Father. And He earnestly prayed, and God heard His prayer. And Jesus saw extraordinary answers to His prayers. And we will also, if we trust in God and pray as we should.

Let me close us with a word of prayer.

God, thank You that You have given us an open access to You in prayer. You have given us the joy of participating in Your works through prayer. You have a clear objective and a vision for Your world, and we get to join in what You are doing by seeking for Your good purposes to be accomplished on earth. How delightful that is. Thank You also that in prayer, we can bring to You all of our cares because You are our heavenly Father who loves and cares for us. But we thank You most of all that You have enlisted us to join in Your works, so that we would not squander our time on earth on frivolous things, on pointless and meaningless things, but that our hearts will be conformed to Your heart and seek that which You seek. Thank You for this grand privilege of prayer. Thank You that even now, as we call upon You, You hear us. Thank You for teaching us. We bless You. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.

All right. Well, Lord bless you all, and I will see you all again for morning devotions on Monday.